Rays of Light
by CJFANG
Summary: After the incident in Altomare, Latios and Latias, wait for Ash to come back. However, they find out they will do more than wait, after a special someone pays them a visit, which brings more characters and fun... and more chaos. Sequel to TRIGGER. DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue

DB: Ah...nothing a little copy and paste can't capture. Anyways, since CJ couldn't send this prologue to me, I've just copied it off the site to work with it. To simplify the definitions of our jobs, CJ is in charge of the plot and the story's pathway, I just enhance it with details and proofreading. We also work together to think up...

CJ: Alright DB, that's enough. Lets just let them read now.

DB: Oh fine, can I at least do the disclaimer?

CJ: (Shrugs) Sure.

DB: Neither one of use owns Pokemon or any related trademarks. They are property of Game Freak and Nintendo.

Prologue

The sun leaks in through an open window from the radiant summer morning, outlining two figures under the blankets of a large bed. The bed is in a somewhat small white room which also holds a TV, a few other appliances, and also holds doorways to a bathroom and closet as well the kitchen area for the rest of the house. Beside the bed is an end-table with a lamp, clock, TV remote, and phone all messily crammed onto its top.

The phone suddenly starts ringing, prompting the figure on the left side of the bed to slam his hand down on it thinking it was the alarm clock. After realizing there is no snooze button on a phone, he picks it up and puts to his ear while sitting up, moving his jet-black hair into the breeze coming through the wind.

Without even bothering to open his eyes, the teen answers with a groggy, "Hello?"

"_Ray? That you?_" The voice on the other end sounded familiar to the teen's ears, and after realizing who it is, his soft-golden eyes sharply open.

"Lorenzo? Hey!" The teen smiles, "What's going on?"

"_Ray, turn to the news. Now._" Lorenzo orders. With a shrug the teen grabs the remote and turns on the TV. His eyes widen when he recognizes the DMA in the Altomare Museum, surrounded with policemen while a few others took two women in handcuffs away.

Ray cusses under his breath and almost yells, "You better have a good explanation for this!" into the phone, restraining himself only to keep from disturbing the other figure.

"_Those two women, they took the Soul Dew. They tried using the DMA._" Ray rests a hand to his forehead, putting all of his will into holding back to volley of curses in his mind.

"Anything else?" He sourly asks.

"_'The dragons are awake.'_"

"W-What?!?" Ray asks, sounding like he'd just seen a ghost.

"_'The dragons are awake.'_"

Ray frowns, "I'll be over as soon as possible. Later." Without waiting for a good-bye, he hangs up and climbs out of the bed, his bare feet making no noise on the soft white carpet. His attire consists of nothing more than a white T-shirt and plain old boxers.

He walks into the closet and pulls some of the shirts of the away to get at the white wall behind them. Ray then presses in part of the wall, causing another part to slide away and reveal a compartment holding a golden, rectangle shaped case on a stand. Ray removes the case and opens it to look at its contents; a sheathed katana and two sheathed daggers.

He grabs the sword and slides part of it out, taking careful note of the faint gold glow before re-sheathing it and putting it back. Ray sighs while shaking his head, then closes the case before pressing the same hidden switch, which closes the hidden compartment. He further hides the secret place by sliding the shirts back to where they were.

Ray leaves the closet and moves to the kitchen, taking a post-it note and pen to leave behind an explanation for his still sleeping friend...

_Gone to Altomare, short notice but desperately needed. The dragons are awake._

"That oughta do." Ray mutters to himself while leaving the note beside the fruit bowl. As hungry as he was, Ray couldn't stop to eat...the situation meant he had to leave now.

He returns to the bedroom with the case under his arms, making a beeline to the window. Suddenly his body begins to glow before jeans and a black button-up collared shirt (which is hanging open) with a long wide tail appear over his T-shirt and boxers. Setting on his left shoulder is a golden insignia; the outline of a long curved shield with a cross in the middle, both bright gold. Aviator goggles also appear, hanging loosely around his neck and bouncing around with each step he takes.

Ray steps up onto the windowsill, pausing as he looks out over the cliff his house is perched on, admring the rolling waves on the sapphire blue ocean and soft turquiose sky with a smile and a happy sigh. Hearing a rustle come from his bed he turns and sees a lucario, a female one, roll over to look at the window, her ruby eyes half-opening and still heavy with slumber. Luckily, Ray's shadow is cast over her face, shielding her eyes from the sun. The blankets slipped off her a little when she rolled over, and where a spike on a male lucario would be sat a pair of breasts...her canine form arousing Ray.

Sadly, there isn't any time for love. Ray quickly moves to the bed and pecks her on the nose before drawing the covers back up, smiling when he saw her smile and re-close her eyes. He returns to the window with his back to the lucario and the bed. He deeply sighs before leaping out the window, grinning as the wind rushes up at his face. A sudden flash of light erupts from Ray before he floats back up to the window a Latios now present instead of a human; the same insignia that his shirt had is now present at the end of his wings on both the top and bottom.

Ray's soft golden eyes look back inside at the lucario, eyeing how attractive she is and how the blanket curves around her body. He manages to squeeze back inside and nuzzle the lucario's cheek, getting her to sigh and smile wider in her sleep. Ray, the latios, securely straps the case to his back then floats back outside.

_Really hoping this won't slow me down_. Ray smirks. With a grunt he flies off, speeding up towards the clouds. He flies right through one, then rolls over to float on his back and looks up at the sky. He rolls again and cuts through another cloud with his wing. His smirk changes into a satisfied smile as he rights himself then takes off toward the northern skies...

DB: Ah there ain't nothing like the start of a new adventure!

CJ: Yup, and now we've got an explanation for my e-mail address!

DB: Who knows what kind of trouble there will be...well, I do, but I ain't tellin!

CJ: (Chuckles) Tune in for the next chapter!

DB: (Anime-style unamused face) Dude, you sound like a TV announcer.


	2. Reunion?

DB: Whoo! Chapter 1 has premiered!

CJ: A little warning next time! You yelled right in my ear!

DB: You're still alive ain't ya?

CJ: Yea, just not sure if I can hear anymore.

DB: (Grunts and crosses his arms) You know you can always just work on your own. I do have three of my own stories to work on.

CJ: You wouldn't...

DB: Yea, you're right, I wouldn't. Now come here! (Grabs CJ around the neck) Go and enjoy the chapter while I noogie this guy.

CJ: You really shouldn't do that.

DB: (starts noogie assault)

* * *

Chapter 1 Reunion (Well sort of...)

"It's so peaceful," A red headed girl says before sighing, her legs swinging back and forth under the branch she's sitting on; the tree growing in a lush garden. Her bright gold eyes watch the lazy clouds above through the foliage, taking in those fluffy blobs as well as every quiver that a leaf made "Right brother?" She asks.

No response.

"Brother?" She asks while turning around, a smile on her face thinking her bro is just zoning out again. The smile instantly vanishes while she sweat-drops, her eyes now starring blankly at the Latios lying on another branch, slumped up against the tree trunk and snoring like a chainsaw. She sighs, then quickly conjures up a mischievous plan and starts jumping over to him.

After a few jumps, she lands on the Latios' branch, then transforms back into a Latias. Carefully she grabs him by the wings and lifts him off the tree by the wings, and flies off.

"ZzzZZZzz..." Latios' head shakes when he realizes he's moving, "Wh-wha..." he can't finish the question, his devious sister had dropped him into the water. After flailing a little, Latios bursts up above the surface, shaking himself violently. "Dammit sis! I hate it when you do that!"

"Awww. Come on, you smelled anyway!" The red and white dragon said through her laughs as their increased. Latios scowls at her while flying around, shaking the rest of the water out of his downy fur. He coos silently from the refreshing feeling, his pride keeping him from admitting it to his sister.

"Well, now that I'm up, I'm gonna go fly around, coming with?" Latios asks his still giggling sister.

"Mmmm, nah. I'll just take a walk."

Latios raises his arms in a shrugging motion, "Suit yourself."

* * *

Ray strolls along through the city, his sleeves rolled up and his hands in his pockets, avoiding suspicion by staying in human form. The golden case on his back is the only thing that turns heads, but no-one bothered him about it.

He sighs while moving through the crowds filling the streets. He wasn't claustrophobic, but he still hated having no elbow-room. Desperately needing breathing room, Ray forces his way through the crowd to a street that leads him to a more quiet area.

He smiles at the sight of his favorite cafe sitting on the other side of the bridge in front of him. He crosses the stone masterpiece, glancing down at a gondola passing below. 'Heh, looks like Lorenzo's gondolas are quite popular,' he thinks to himself, noticing several more further down the canal.

Ray finishes crossing the bridge and opens the clear door of the busy cafe, meeting a cold blast of air conditioning in the process. He pleasantly shivers at the breeze and walks over to the counter.

"Can I have an italian beef and some lemonade? Just give me the sandwich and a disposable cup, I'm not going to eat here."

"Sure thing," the girl behind the counter says, smiling at Ray's polite tone. She's wearing a green polo and a beret, but anything below her waist is blocked by the counter. Ray doesn't really care about that, noticing that her hair is in the shape of...

"That'll be 487 Poke, wait here." she says before leaving to go get Ray's order.

A pair of latias wings...that's exactly what her hair-style looked like. She returns a minute later, flashing him another smile while taking the money, then handing over a great-looking, large italian beef sandwich and a disposable cup filled with lemonade in exchange.

"Trying to lay off on the pop," Ray says, giving her a friendly smile. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" He asks while taking his food.

"Sorry, but I don't think we've ever met."

Ray shrugs and leaves after saying his thanks. The teen finishes his lunch in no time at all, wolfing down the 8-inch long sandwich in less than a minute. Deciding to slow down a little, he wanders back onto the bridge and leans against the railing, idly sipping at his drink while watching the gondolas float around on the water.

Eventually he glances over at where he came from and spots a cute girl walking along, there's no way she could've been any older than thirteen. She has on a red tank-top, a white skirt falling to just above her knees, and a red-and-white cap on. Her long, autumn-red hair is tied back into a ponytail which was pulled through the back of her cap. Her eyes flashed in a captivating shade of gold and there is a content smile plastered to her face while she walked toward him, like nothing was bothering her.

'Odd...' Ray thinks, he could've sworn he detected...

"Hey there," Some guy decided to cut off his thoughts again. He has on a black shirt and white cargo shorts, black-hair shaved into a buzz-cut, and shades on over his eyes. He practically screamed "I'm a gangster!" while walking up to the girl. "What's a beaut like ya doin' round here?" he asks while walking closer to the girl, who began shifting around uncomfortably.

'Great...' Ray thinks, starting to walk towards the two. He didn't just think that guy was bad news, he knew he's bad news.

"Nothing." the girl replies, speeding up a little to try and pass him.

"Hey, don't be like that," he says, grabbing her arm so she can't get away. She struggles against the 15-year old boy, but was clearly losing to him, not surprising since he is clearly stronger and bigger than her.

Ray took one last sip of his lemonade before reaching them. "Oy! You! Back off!" he barks, snapping the goon's attention from the girl to him.

"This is none of your business, piss off flyboy," the 15-year old hisses. If looks could kill, that guy would have fallen dead in an instant.

"Got a problem with flyboys?" Ray threateningly asks. Once you insult his goggles, you cross a line.

"Yeah, the fact that they're all pricks, now piss off before I mess your face!" The boy retorts, still holding onto the girl's arm. As if daring Ray to do something, he smiles the most cocky, arrogant, and stupidest possible grin.

Immediately Ray wanted to either choke-slam him into the ground, or vaporize him and that stupid grin with a Luster Purge. He manages to keep those urges pinned down and sighs while bringing his cup up to his lips, but then throws it forward, spilling the remaining lemonade all over the boy's groin area, staining those pure white shorts to a shade of "Wee-wee yellow."

"What the hell?!?!" the goon yells, letting go of the girl during his freak out.

"Look who's pissing now you spaz." Ray spits, glaring at the boy with a look that would make a Weavile run away.

The boy retreats a few steps, his smile quickly replaced with a scowl. He puts the ring, middle, and index fingers of his right hand against his left in a way that makes it look like an 'A'. "You just messed with the west side of A!" He yells, as if hoping to frighten Ray off.

"Yeah! West side of my ass! Now get lost!" Ray snarls, stepping forward in a stomp. People (by now) had been drawn out of their homes and laughed while watching a teenager with soiled pants run away like a scared Rattata. Ray scoffs in disgust before stepping closer to the girl, who just stared at him.  
"You alright?" Ray tenderly asks.

The girl nods and cups her hands together, holding them over her belly. "Yes I am, thank...you?" she asks, distracted by Ray's behavior. He started circling her, looking her up and down. She curiously blinks while he smirks.

"Hey Jin," he says, looking right into her golden eyes.

"U-Uh, sorry but the name's Cheryl." The girl replies, stuttering a little.

He thought he felt it from over on the bridge, but at this range, Ray is sure that he's feeling the energy of an Eon coming from her. He couldn't talk anymore, they got interrupted by the girl from the cafe.

"Cherry!" She yells, hurrying over to the two. "Are you okay? Once of the customers said something about..."

"Its okay Bianca, I'm fine." Cheryl replies.

_Cherry must be her nickname, but is that really Bianca?_ Ray thinks. _I can't believe it, she's gotten so big!_

"This nice guy..."

"Ray." He interrupts.

"Ray chased away the goon that was bothering me," Cheryl happily replies, "Although to be honest, I probably shouldn't have left home without Pikachu."

_Pikachu?! This girl has a Pikachu?! But I'm sure she's Jin!_ Ray thinks to himself in a panic, _But Pokemon can't become Pokemon trainers...but...oh god my head hurts..._ he groans, drawing the attention of the girls.

"You okay?" the girl named Bianca asks. Now that she's out from behind the counter, Ray could see that she's also wearing a white skirt, but this one only reached to the middle of her thighs.

"Huh? Yea..I'm fine. Just a bit of a headache."

"Care for a drink on the house?" Bianca asks, "Least I can do to say thank for helping my friend."

"Can't. The sooner I find my friend and hand this over," he gestures at the gold case, "the better."

Before Bianca could argue, Cheryl quickly says, "Oh well...maybe next time!"

"Maybe." Ray replies, walking away down the street.

"Bye! Thanks again for saving me!" Cheryl yells after him.

Ray only answers with a single wave before rounding a corner.

Once he was out of earshot, Cheryl grabs Bianca by the arm and tugs her close enough to whisper, "We've got a problem." in her friend's ear.

"What do you mean?" Bianca quietly asks back.

"That guy must be looking for me and Latios."

"How do you know?"

"He called me Jin."

"What?!" Bianca asks in a panic, barely keeping her voice in a whisper. She takes a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. "Okay okay...head back home and warn Jabir, my shift's almost done and I'll meet you there. There's a shady area behind the cafe where you can change."

"Thanks."

Bianca gives a quick wink. "No problem."

The two girls give one another a hug before Cheryl hurries off and Bianca heads inside, both oblivious to the two men on the cafe's patio. Both are wearing a long, brown trenchcoat and have a bowl-cut hairstyle, although one had blond hair and the other has brown.

"You heard what that guy screamed after the kid dumped his lemonade on him, right?" The brown-haired man asks his friend.

"Yes. That gang might pose a problem to our operations here." Blondy replies.

"We'll have to see if they're worth the effort first."

The blond snorts, "You really think they can stand up to us?"

"I'm talking about finding where they gather. Once that's out of the way, they'll all go down in five seconds." Brown replies, his face contorting into a wicked grin.

* * *

After about ten minutes of walking, Ray finally comes to Lorenzo's workshop, relieved that he could finally relax for a few minutes. Knowing how old the tykes are now, they would be probably be out on the town. That's perfectly fine for Ray...more time to catch up with Lorenzo.

The black-haired teen strolls right into the workshop, then through the doorway into the living room of the house, finding the large, old form of Lorenzo sitting in a chair, watching the news while scratching the belly of a...Pikachu?

'Must be Bianca's.' Ray assumes before rapping on the walls, getting Lorenzo's attention.

"Huh? What's..." he turns around to see Ray there, " Ray! Such a pleasure seeing you again!"

Before Ray could respond, three teens stroll right in through another doorway; two girls and an older boy. The girls he recognizes as Bianca and Cheryl, but the boy, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans which stood out from his deep-blue hair and crimson-red eyes, is new.

"You!" The girls exclaim, remembering Ray from before.

"You?" Ray asks, surprised to find them here. After learning that Cheryl has a Pikachu, he was sure he had the wrong girls...now, not so much.

"Him?" The blue-haired boy asks. The girls told him about Ray, but he was expecting someone a bit...tougher looking.

"Me?" Ray asks, now utterly confused. "Lorenzo?" he asks, wanting an explanation.

"Lorenzo?" the teens repeat, surprised that this stranger knew the old man's name.

"Jabir?" Lorenzo asks, surprised that Latios (the blue-haired boy) didn't recognize Ray.

"Lorenzo!" Latios yells, thinking the old man just gave away the secret.

"Jabir?!" Ray asks in surprise, astounded that the pokemon that couldn't shapeshift is now disguised as a person. This only served to make his headache a little worse.

"Pika!" Pikachu yells, clutching his head in his paws. It was too much for his little mind to handle, he collapsed right over onto the table he was standing on.

"Alright, the next person to give a one word sentence gets smacked!" Lorenzo bellows, infuriated at the confusion.

"But grandpa! He..."

"Is here at my request." Lorenzo finishes.

"And we weren't told about this because?" Jabir asks, more than a little upset.

"I can't surprise you with an old friend?" Lorenzo counters.

Jabir's face turns into a confused stare as he turns from Lorenzo to Ray. He stares for a few seconds before asking, "That you Ray?"

Ray only responds by triumphantly smirking.

* * *

DB: (gets up off the floor, nursing a hard punch to his head) Geez CJ, did you really have to deck me?

CJ: I told ya noogying me was a bad idea.

DB: Sourpuss.

CJ: Ignoring that, anyways...in case you forgot from Trigger, Jabir is Latios' name and Jin is Latias'. Cheryl is a fake name Latias uses whenever she's out in public, also going by her nickname "Cherry".

DB: That's right. Also, Lat...er, Jin's hat is the same hat Ash left behind at the end of Trigger and she also takes care of his Pikachu (who also stayed behind). Poor Ray, that must've been so confusing.

CJ: Right, and did he mess with the wrong guy? What about those other two men at the cafe? For those answers, you'll have to be patient and wait!


	3. Kara

* * *

CJ: Mwahaha, I finished the next chapter!

DB: Yea, and only after a two month hiatus.

CJ: Okay fine, I do owe the fans an apology, but you're not one to complain.

DB: (Glares off to the side)

CJ: Anyway, I do have to thank my co-author and all of you for being patient with me. So why don't I...

DB: (Clears throat)

CJ: Oh yea...umm. Just a warning to all of you, there will be a few sexual references, but its far from the 'M' level. Now you can...

DB: Hold on. I think you forgot to mention that normal talk is in a normal font, "Radio transmissions and telepathic talk is in italic double-quotes," and 'Private thoughts are in italic single-quotes'.

CJ: You just did that, so...(checks a list)...okay, NOW you all can read.

* * *

"Mnm...Ray..." the Lucario in bed mumbles, stirring and tangling herself in the sheets. She reaches over and grasps next to her, as if expecting someone or something to be there but only finds empty air. Realizing she was alone, she sits up; the sheets tied around her and hiding her curves. Her eyes reluctantly open to reveal their soft red to the world then look down to confirm that nothing is next to her on the king-sized bed. She heaves a sigh,

'Where did he go now...' she wonders while pulling the sheets off and walking over to the closet. Once there, the pokemon slips on a vest that matches the blue of her fur and pulls the zipper up to fasten it. Once clothed, the Lucario gently runs a paw through the aura-receptors on the back of her head, pulling them out of the vest. Normal Lucario wouldn't have to worry about this, but then again, she isn't normal.

The aura-receptors on a normal Lucario look a little like dreadlocks, but her's look more like straight, flowing hair that a human would have. They are thinner, long enough to reach the bottom of the shoulder blades, and a lot more than just four. It wasn't just the "hair" that's different but also the chest spike; it is a lot shorter than a normal one, so small in fact that it is little more than a bump on her chest, hidden between her, well...breasts. She's also quite a bit taller than the average height for a Lucario, almost six-feet to be exact.

The Lucario groggily walks out of the living room and over to the counter, finding a note present on the marble counter beside the fruit bowl. She picks it up while rubbing her eyes, careful to avoid stabbing herself with her wrist spikes which are actually a little bigger than a normal Lucario's.

"The dragons are awake...how convenient, espically after what happened last night too," she laughs, smiling and closing her eyes. 'Its funny how romantic I can make Ray,' she giggles to herself.

'I should probably head off to Altomare. Its going to be nice to finally see some of his family, especially when its in the floating city itself,' she notices the open window and shakes her head as the memory of her briefly waking up just in time to see Ray fly off. She would've told him to wait or done something to slow him down, but she was just too exhausted from her previous actions to get up and do something about it.

After quickly eating a couple berries, she mimics Ray by standing on the edge of the windowsill. Only waiting to take a deep breath, she falls backwards like Ray, her arms spread open as the exhilarating feeling of wind rushing by fills her. Looking below her to see the blue ocean rushing up, the Lucario only smirks before shifting her weight to fall head-first.

Finally, about fifteen feet from the ocean's surface, she juts out her arms to catch on a branch growing from the cliffside. Using that branch like a springboard, she bounces back up and away from the rocky wall. Elegantly twisting around in mid-air to land feet-first, the Lucario actually stands on the water's surface for a second thanks to concentrated aura on her feet.

Before this briefly-existing land could give way, she jumps forward; re-focusing the aura pads each time she goes up in the air. After a few steps, she stops re-forming the aura pads because she's actually running on the water!

"Hooray for Extremespeed!" she yells, zooming away over the ocean, leaving a mirage of Lucario in an after-image behind her as well as a giant wake of water that would put any speedboat to shame.

* * *

"N-no way!" Latios exclaims as his eyes start bulging, "What happened to you? Did you find Mom?!?" he starts barraging Ray with questions. Ray tunes out all of them except for one.

"No. I haven't found sis." Everybody stops what they were doing and looks at him. "But hey, I'm back." Ray says with a forced smile. He and Jabir stand for a second before the younger Latios runs up to Ray and hugs him.

"Good seeing you again uncle Ray."

"Uncle?" Ray and Jabir look over at Jin, who was clutching her head in confusion. The two Latios release one another to let Ray walk towards the confused girl.

"Yep. I'm your uncle," Ray chuckles. Jin didn't know what to do from there, she's just too lost. Ray only shrugs before glowing white and changing shape into his pokemon form.

The slightly larger Latios smirks. "Believe me now?"

Jin slowly nods, amazed at the Latios that wasn't her brother. "W-we have an UNCLE?!?" Jin stammers before glaring at Jabir.

"Well, yeah! I thought you knew!" Jabir exclaims while changing into his Latios form.

"I didn't! You don't tell me anything!"

Ray laughs to himself. 'Just like his dad, always keeps to himself.' Jin is now in her Latias form and floating higher then normal to bicker with her brother at his eye level. It is actually a little amusing to hear the smaller Lati yell at her brother in high-pitched squawks, then hear him retort with deep warbles.

"STOP!" Lorenzo bellows, halting all other conversation. "You're giving me a headache! Go settle this in the garden or something!" The old man adds while standing up, accidently dropping Pikachu to the ground with a thud.

"PI!" The mouse yells, having clunked his head against the floor.

"Come on you two, you guys heard Lorenzo." Ray remarks. The three Latis were about to leave before Bianca butts in.

"Hey! Don't leave me out of this, I'm like a sister to these two!" She pouts, pointing at the Lati siblings before crossing her arms.

"Pika!" Pikachu adds, scampering over to the others while rubbing the slight bump on his head.

"Well, hop on then." Ray says to Bianca, who only stares at him.

"Go ahead, I don't mind." Ray adds while lowering his body enough to let Bianca climb up on his back, after taking off the sword case and handing it over to Jabir. The younger Latios only stares blankly at it, having no idea what it is. Pikachu gladly hops onto Latias, who giggles while fitting Ash's hat to her head. The three then disguise themselves, hiding any luggage or passengers, then quickly fly out an open doorway and into the sky.

"I'm getting too old for this...I need some Advil..." Lorenzo grumbles while wandering into the kitchen.

* * *

"So you prefer being called Joshua?" Ray asks, relaxing on a large sturdy branch, still in Latios form.

"Yeah, I think that its more suitable," Latios replies, relaxing on the same branch as Ray. Both of them lying on their backs and staring at the clouds through the foliage of the garden; Josh propped against the trunk of the tree and Ray against the large pillow of leaves at the end of the branch.

"Jabir's kinda weird anyway," Jin remarks, floating upside-down in the air, staring at the two Latios while Pikachu settles in the soft down of her belly.

"Yea, same with Jin," Josh states, "No offense to Dad or anything...and Cheryl doesn't really fit like we thought it would."

"Yeah...I liked it, but its not quite right...maybe..." Jin puts a claw to her lips, "Hmmm."

"Jennifer? Jen's pretty close to Jin," Bianca suggests as she swings her legs from a branch near the Latios.

"I don't know, I'm used to sis and Latias not Jin."

"What about...Lucia?" Bianca offers.

"Lucia?" Jin parrots while flipping over, almost dropping Pikachu (who was wearing Ash's hat), for a second time. Luckily, the small pokemon grabs onto her down to hold on.

"I like it," Josh states.

"Why not?" Ray shrugs, tugging his golden case a little closer as it rests on his stomach. The name fits her anyways.

Latias smiles, "Its perfect! Thanks guys!" The other three start laughing while watching a terrified Pikachu cling to Lucia's back as she flies in circles. The little guy had just climbed around to the larger pokemon's back when she took flight, and is screaming in poke'speak that he was going to fall off.

"So Uncle Ray, where did you go?" Lucia asks, stopping to let Pikachu climb up to her neck.

"Just call me Ray, and I've been all around the world...Hoenn, Orre, Kanto, Sinnoh, and Johto not to mention various archipelagos. I've gotta be flexible for my job."

"You have a job?!?" Bianca and Lucia exclaim.

'Wow. They're so surprised at the most normal of things.' Ray thinks to himself before answering, "Yeah, a girlfriend too."

"Really?" Josh asks, perking his head up.

Ray lets out a single chuckle, "Yeah, she's probably on her way to Altomare as we speak. Knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up in the next minute or so."

"I thought you said there weren't a lot of Latias in the world!" Josh exclaims while scratching the back of his head, remembering a past conversation between him and Ray.

"Whoever said she was a Latias?" Ray asks, now grinning.

"What is she? And why didn't you bring her?" Bianca asks while leaning towards the two Latios across from her, a mischeivous look on her face.

"You'll see when she comes. I didn't bring her cause she was still tired from last night," Ray dreamily droops his eyes while Bianca's widen and she leans back, her face tinted pink.

"What did she do?" Lucia, clueless and innocent, asks Ray. Josh, Ray, and Bianca quickly flush red.

Ray quickly coughs, wondering how to answer his niece. "Err...romantic things..."

Before Lucia could go futher, Josh interrupts. "So what do those golden shield and cross symbols mean?"

Ray gestures to the end of his wings to make sure he knew what Latios was asking about. "Those?"

Josh nods.

Before Ray answers, he glances around for any suspicious pokemon. People didn't know about this garden save Lorenzo and Bianca, but a pokemon could easily stumble across this place. Luckily, all the ones here seemed to be normal.

"Well," Ray starts while shifting around to get rid of a kink, "It's the insignia of the work I do. We call ourselves the Lance Syndicate; a highly trained group of pokemon and humans that work together to bring down terrorists or a large group of people bent on doing horrible things with living or non-living arms, to even large-scale firefights. We're not known in this region since there hasn't been anything bad going on for a while in Altomare...at least not on a scale large enough to warrant our attention. Lance wants to remain as secretive as possible."

"Cool, you guys are like Cyphrus and Lily!" Latias exclaims. Pikachu's ears perk up to the two names.

"No sis, they're in a war division. It's different." Josh states.

"Who?" Ray asks, with one fully open while the other is only partially open, making him look like he was raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, right..." Latias says, then takes a large breath, "Well..."  


* * *

"Wow...I didn't think Altomare would be this beautiful," The female Lucario mutters as she walks down a street near the shore, having just arrived. She watches as people row by in gondolas, as kids chase one another down the streets, and even people swimming around in the ocean and lying around on the beach. It's so...nice here!

She starts humming in satisfaction while strolling along, smiling as her tail slowly swishes back and forth. Its a bit of an odd sound...her hums always sound like purrs when she's happy, strange for a dog-like pokemon. What is stranger are the people rudely staring at her like she was a walking epidemic.

Did she really look that intimidating? Guess so, the spikes and lean build are probably enough...maybe it was the vest that was repelling trainers, thinking that she was already 'captured'. The Lucario giggles to herself, in a way that was true.

It might also have been her entrance to the city; that super-fast blazing form that jumped off the ocean and landed gracefully on a pier as the waves she was causing swept a bunch of people onto the beach. It was amusing to see all the shocked faces when a pokemon came barreling in from atop the waves.

Gently pushing the thoughts out of her mind, the Lucario goes back to admiring the city while enjoying her stroll. After a couple of turns, she finds herself looking at two statues, one of which looks exactly like Ray. 'Ray never told me he had a statue of himself,' She giggles again before continuing on.

Eventually the Lucario sighs before ducking down an empty alley. "Alright Ray...where did you go..." she mutters while bowing her head and closing her eyes. Slowly, all of her receptors start lifting up before splaying out to the side and the back, like a powerful wind is blowing them back. In reality, she's just opening her aura-sight, a way of seeing the world by aura fields instead of light.

Her whole view is a blue-tinted black, but that's because she's facing a wall. Once she turns to look out of the alley, an explosion of neon colors flood her view, each one reflecting off of the buildings and streets to make it look like a rainbow had collapsed on the city. Struggling a little to look past so many fields, the Lucario pushes her vision further until finally coming across a faint golden wisp that vaguely resembled a Lati...strange thing was an electric-pink and deep-ocean-blue wisp of similar shape were nearby.

"More Latis huh?" The pokemon mutters while opening her eyes. "Guess he found his folks." Quick as flash the Lucario is on the roof-tops, from up here she could better find Ray's aura signal. She closes her eyes for a brief moment to find him again, then starts jumping from roof to roof.

"Got you..."  


* * *

Ray's now levitating outside of the tree, pacing back and forth in the air while taking in what happened last week. What he heard made complete sense, but he's still deeply troubled. Why would they come to the pokemon world? Why did they take that Ash kid with them? What exactly is the power of "Biometal"? Thoughts like this kept flooding into his mind, but he manages to suppress them to turn to his nephew.

"Is there anything else of importance that Raphael told you?" Ray asks, serious as even while staring at Josh.

"Just our true names, and he taught me how to do things I couldn't before...like he released a barrier or something." Josh answers.

Ray nods, "And Cyphrus...he brought you back by using his prosthetic arm as a Lati-energy-conductor?"

Josh nods.

Ray rubs the back of his head. "I see...we'll talk more later. One of my main reasons of coming to Altomare is to..." Ray closes his eyes and sighs.

"Is to prepare you, as in Lucia and Josh, to be able defend yourselves and the ones you love. I'm also here to teach you how to adapt to human life and customs as well as how to speak human in your pokemon form and human form...well, you both seem to have learned it in human form already. I'm also going to teach you the basic concept of combat with the blades that Lorenzo passed to you from your parents. I couldn't come earlier because Raphael wanted me to come only when you two were at your full potential...he never explained why though."

Everybody stayed silent, looking at Ray. Lucia looked a little hurt, but Josh completely understood.

"Some uncle I am huh?" Ray scoffs while looking away; ashamed at himself for coming like this on short notice.

"You're still family to me," Lucia immediately changes her expression from offended to compassionate. Ray stares at her for a second before smiling and hugging his niece, knowing she meant it from the bottom of her heart after hearing her sniffle. It felt so good to be back. Josh smiles at the sight of his sister getting hugged by someone from their family besides him.

Suddenly, a loud laugh rings out over the garden. "How sweet," a voice says, getting everyone but Ray to look around. "You'd better not be cheating on me Ray." the voice adds a second later.

Ray releases his niece while starting to chuckle. He glances upward to see a smiling, female Lucario standing on the very top of the tree Latios and Bianca are in; balancing perfectly on the tiny area. It is like looking up at royality or a renowned hero the way her hair is getting blown back a breeze.

"Come on down and meet the family!" The Lucario leaps from branch to branch with such speed, finese, and accuracy that it blows the other four away. Suddenly the Lucario disappears into the tree before shooting out the bottom of the branches, landing in a crouched position. Josh also flew out of the tree, but he darted out of the side to avoid getting hit by her.

The Lucario stands and looks at the rest of the crowd, before giving them a happy smile and exclaiming, "Hey everbody!"

The others are dumbstruck, they never expected Ray's girlfriend to be a Lucario; and not just any Lucario but a talking Lucario with hair!

'She looks a lot like a human too...' Lucia thought to herself, blinking. 'Ash...'

"What took you? Oversleep again?" Ray smirks.

"Strangest thing, my alarm clock seemed to go flying out the window on its own." The Lucario turns to Ray, laughing. Everbody else chuckles, snapping themselves out of the weird trances.

"So you're..." Bianca asks, now balanced on a lower branch, "Ray's girlfriend?"

"Fiance." The Lucario corrects, "Ray proposed to me last night," She softly smiles while shooting Ray a loving glance. "It took me awhile to get here because we couldn't sleep last night, we got a bit too excited."

Ray's face has a blush creeping over as well as a sheepish smirk glued in place.

Pikachu climbs up to Lucia's head for a better view and starts clapping.

"Pika! Pika pi pikachu!"

"Aww, how cute," the Lucario says, raising her left paw to run the other on a pure golden bracelet with a diamond in it. "And yes, you're invited to the wedding," she says in reply of Pikachu's words.

"You're just like big brother, you never tell us anything!" Lucia pouts at Ray. The Lucario lets out a loud laugh.

"Guess it runs in the family."

"I'm sorry, we never got your name," Josh says, a bit timid by the powerful looking pokemon.

"Oh! Sorry!" The Lucario shows her canines in an apologetic grin, "My name is Kara, nice to meet you. You must be Jabir."

"They sort of switched names," Bianca states. Kara looks up at the girl.

"Really? So what are they?"

"I'm Bianca," the human girl says, gesturing to herself, then over at Latios while adding, "Ray's nephew prefers Josh, and-"

"I'm Lucia! Ray's neice!" Latias chirps, flying next to Kara to get a bit better view.

"A pleasure to meet all of you, did I miss anything?"

The crowd glances at each other again, readying for another explanation of what happened while Ray was gone.

* * *

"This is Ephesus. We've found nothing harmful in this area. Our scouts have also found nothing that should be a big delay to our plans." grumbles a deep voice into a wrist-radio.

"Excellent, proceed to Phase 2. We have to ensure that we face no resistance from the locals and the minorities. Begin elimination of Altomare's gangs and start gaining the trust of the community. Meanwhile Nihex will begin the corruption of police and law enforcement to make them work for us."

"Sir, how long do you predict it will take according to the present data?"

"It will take no more than three weeks with our agents. Altomare is the last step from activation of our large plans."

"Understood sir. We'll start getting rid of the street rats as soon as possible. None can stand against FUZE. Ephesus out." The figure presses a button on the side of its wrist-radio, and hears a beep confirming that its off. "Nihex better do his job this time, I'm tired of bailing his ass out." it mutters to itself.

With that the large hooded figure slips out of the alley and disappers into Altomare's crowds.  


* * *

"Oh my god," Kara mutters while processing the story. She as well as Ray and Josh moved back into the tree, Kara sitting on a branch beside her husband-to-be while Josh hung out on a branch just above them.

"Yeah, I had the same reaction."

"This should probably go into the Lance files." Kara says, turning to Ray.

"She works for Lance too?" Josh asks.

"You told them?"

"Yeah. They're trustworthy enough," Ray gives the others a look that said 'if you tell anyone, your head is mine, family or not'.

"Oh, okay." Kara replies, trusting Ray on this one; but she still looks a little concerned.

"Hey, how long have we been sitting here?" Bianca asks, swinging her legs again.

"Awhile...I'm getting hungry..." Lucia also looked like she was getting tired of floating higher than normal.

"Let's grab something to eat," Kara says, looking at Ray while her tail starts wagging.

"Alright. Can you guys find a good restaurant? Kara and I have to do some business before we do anything else here in Altomare." Ray asks.

"What kind of-"

"Okay!! We'll be on our way!" Josh interrupts before flying over to and catching Bianca as she jumps off the branch, then turns invisible while pulling Lucia away with him. Kara and Ray laugh at their niece's naiveity and curiousity before Kara jumps on her fiance's back while he floats down.

"So Josh knows abouts the Pidgeots and Beedrills I'm guessing?" Kara jokes.

"So does Bianca from the looks of it," Ray adds, "Hey, we need to find a place to stay since we'll be here awhile...an apartment or something."

"Why not Lorenzo's?"

"I don't want to give the poor man any trouble. Besides...we want some privacy, right?" Ray asks before inverting himself, causing Kara to yelp and lose her grip. Ray snickers while hugging her from behind, the Lucario now below the Latios.

"Don't do that!" Kara laughs as they land on the ground, still in the same position. The Lucario sighs as Ray lets go and rolls over to face her. "I'm so happy. I guess we can get married and have our honeymoon here," she adds while closing her eyes, admiring that regal gold glow Ray's aura is.

"That would be the best." Ray comments as she carresses the side of his head with a paw. "I love this place..." He trails off while resting his clawed hands to Kara's waist while their lips touch.  


* * *

"Alright, I can give you a place for 9,000 poke a month. It's a very good deal since I'm feeling generous today." Grumbles a man with crossed arms and a smoldering cigarette in his mouth, speaking to an 18-year-old boy with a golden case and a Lucario. "That Lucario's not gonna cause any trouble is it?" He asks, watching the pokemon out of the corner of his eye.

"The deal sounds good to me. And don't worry; my Lucario won't do anything harmful." Ray says. The man nods before walking away down four flights of stairs.

"I happen to be a she, thank you very much." Kara comments, staying calm but still glaring daggars after the landlord. "Isn't that obvious?"

Ray chuckles while putting the key in the lock. "At least we've got an apratment now and..." Ray opens the door to find the apartment stark empty, "...its got no furniture."

That was understatement...apart from the carpet, and the tiles, stove, and fridge in the kitchen this place is empty. No furniture, no decorations, nothing...just basic white walls and either dark-brown carpet or white tiles.

"Oh boy..." Ray mutters while scratching the back of his head. Kara shuts the door behind as she walks in.

"It's not that bad...pretty roomy at least."

That it was. The apartment is a five-room deluxe suite with a large space (most likely the living room to-be) that has a large, open, buffet-like window to the kitchen on the right. The kitchen is relatively small and accessable from a doorway into a hallway which connects to the living room about midway down its length. Looking down the hall, a bathroom could be seen at the end as well as two doors on the side opposite the kitchen's, which most likely opened to bedrooms. Last but not least are the pair of sliding-glass-doors across from them that open onto a balcony with a breathtaking view of the ocean; part of the apartment's cost.

"We need to get a lot of stuff..." Ray remarks while sweatdropping.

"Don't worry about it," Kara says in a supportive voice. Being a stealthy pokemon, she's able to slip behind Ray and snake her arms through his to hug him around the waist. Her grip tightens to pull Ray as close as possible.

"Tell me there's at least a bed..." Kara giggles while doing her purr-hum in Ray's ear. Smiling to himself, Ray shifts into his pokemon form and floats up into the air, Kara now lying on his back; her cheek nestled into his soft feathery down. They float down the hall and check both rooms, but find them empty like the rest of the place. Both sigh in defeat.

"We'll deal with it after dinner. Can you find them?" Kara slips off Ray's back (to avoid blinding herself with his intense gold glow), moves back to the living room and opens her aura-sight while looking out the glass doors.

After just a few seconds she opens her eyes while turning to Ray. "They're pretty close, at what looks like an Italian restaurant. Decent enough place," she answers, smiling.

"I do love Italian food..." Ray dreamily mutters, "Lets go! I'm getting hungry!"

Kara only sighs while opening the large glass doors before leaping off the balcony as Ray flies out of the apartment, doing a barrel roll in the process. He quickly executes a spilt-S and catches Kara on his back before activating his camouflage. The both free fall before Ray takes off again, avoiding a crash into some trees at the entrance to five-star apartment building.

"To the restaurant!"

* * *

DB: Well, not a bad way to introduce everybody to each other.

CJ: Yup, of course, there are still questions like "Who are Ephesus and Nihex?" that our readers are probably asking.

DB: Yea, but if they want to find out, they'll have to wait for more chapters!

CJ: And as always, don't forget to review!

Both: 'Till next time!


	4. Another Typical Dinner

CJ: Yes! Finally! Back with the newest chapter! Whoo-hoo! Ha ha-ha!

DB: Alright alright, settle down.

CJ: Sorry, thanks again though for proofreading this stuff, especially when you're busy with your own stories.

DB: (shrugs) Eh, its not that tough. Don't you have some, uh, notices to take care of?

CJ: Oh! Right! First off, there is a...slightly mature scene towards the end so if you aren't a teen, get out. It's rated T for a reason. Useless warning, but I still need to say it.

DB: (nods) And as for the text; "Regular Speech" looks like that, _"Telepathy/Technological communications"_ are in double-quoted italics, _'Private thoughts'_ are in single quoted italics, and finally a single _italic_ word in a sentence puts extra emphasis on it.

CJ: And for flashbacks, the above is reversed. So _"Regular Speech" _and "Telepathy" switch designs.

DB: Aye. So now, off you go. Enjoy the next chapter now that two of us are done talking.

* * *

"Hmmm… Looks like a decent restaurant," Ray remarks, back in his human form, idly fidgeting with his flight goggles.

"Mmm-hmm, and they let pokemon eat with the trainers too. I like it," Kara smiles.

They walk into the Italian restaurant and get greeted by a plump man with a very bushy mustache. He wasn't very tall, but seems like a kind person judging by his bright, friendly blue eyes. A tall white chef's hat sat on his head that hid his hair, and he wore the restaurant's white uniform; but something about him seemed more suited for a red outfit.

"Ah, hello sir. What a well-mannered Lucario you have there," The man compliments, giving Ray a friendly grin.

"_Thank God he's not like the other impolite men." _Ray chuckles before answering, "Yeah, she's really one of a kind," with a smile. Kara only blushes.

"A table for two?" The man asks, looking off towards a small, secluded booth.

Despite the attractive corner, Ray has to turn down the offer; he was here to meet with family after all. The two look at each other, and Kara sadly looked at Ray with puppy eyes. Ray sighed in his thoughts,

"_I'll make it up to you later…"_

"Actually, we're supposed to meet up with a group of-"

"Uncle Ray!" shouts a girl with a red and white cap, red flowing hair, golden eyes, a white tank top, and a red skirt; waving for his attention from a nearby round table. She sat with Pikachu (who occupied an elevated chair) Lorenzo, Bianca, and a boy with blue spiky hair wearing a thin red vest with a white T-shirt underneath, red eyes, and jeans. Those two were Josh and Lucia. Ray chuckles.

"That's them," He laughs, waving back to the group. The man turns to see the group before turning back to Ray.

"Ah, they did mention waiting for two more. Well, enjoy yourselves! How can I help you?" The man asks another group of people that just came in while Ray and Kara walk onward to the table, sitting in the two vacant, adjacent seats. Ray sat to Lorenzo's left, who sat to Bianca's left, who sat next to Pikachu, who sat next to Lucia, (Deep breath from author) who sat next to Josh, who is now beside Kara.

"What took you so long?" Lucia asks, putting her head on her hands while she propped her elbows against the table.

"We just got an apartment," Kara answers, resting her paws on her lap. A waitress quickly walks up, and sets two glasses of ice water in front of her and Ray. The two say their thanks, earning a smile from… The tag on her uniform said Sharon.

"Too bad there's nothing in it," Ray sighs. Kara nudges her fiancé.

"Don't worry about it! Come on, we're here to relax," Kara said playfully, "Although a bed would probably be nice."

A small wave of giggles and chuckles rolls through the group.

"If you guys need anything, we got some extra furniture," Lorenzo says, leaning back in his chair and straightening his back to stretch it.

"Extra?" Bianca asked. "Where?" Lorenzo paused.

"Right. We gave it away already haven't we?" Lorenzo stared at Bianca.

"Yeah… wait, to who?" Bianca asks back, a puzzled look on her face.

"It's okay. We'll manage," Ray remarked, resisting the urge to laugh at how old Lorenzo became. Lorenzo and Bianca nodded.

"Suit yourself. Now, what to eat," Lorenzo picked up a menu. Everybody picked one up, even Pikachu.

"That steak looks good," Kara says eying the picture of an eight ounce steak with sautéed mushrooms.

"So does that ravioli," Ray mumbles, looking at a plate filled with ravioli and pasta sauce with a sprinkling of cheese on top. Everybody found what they liked, even Pikachu. Kara with the eight ounce steak; Ray with the ravioli; Lucia, Josh, and Bianca taking a spaghetti with alfredo sauce; and Lorenzo selecting clam chowder.

Once a waiter arrives, he introduces himself while taking all the menus…except Pikachu's, since the mouse shook his head while the waiter reached for it.

"Hello, my name's Jim and I'll be your waiter today," He says politely enough but still looks stressed and busy. Even though he manages to keep eye contact with the group, he's also shooting quick glances at the rest of the tables around them; like he's anxious to get on with his job.

"Are you guys ready to order?" Everyone relayed their order before Pikachu set his menu down and pointed at a bow-tie pasta dish. Jim stares at Pikachu for a second before beginning to laugh; so much so that he doubles over. After getting up from the ordeal he looks a whole lot better.

"Hahaha, oh man." He mutters before sighing, "That's got to be the only relief I've gotten so far in my shift," the waiter looked at Pikachu. "Who's the trainer of this pokemon?" Lucia raised her hand,

"I am!" She quickly replies.

"You do know that that dish can make your little buddy sick right? Not severely, but he won't feel real good for a while." The waiter asks while scratching at his brown fluffy hair and blinking his brown eyes.

"He can manage," Lucia smiled at the waiter, "thank you though!"

Jim smiles back at the cute girl. "Okay, thank you for your orders. They'll be out soon." He says before going to a table across from theirs and back to his work.

"Busy place isn't it?" Ray asks Lorenzo, glancing over to the old man on his right.

"Oh yes, but they get their food out pretty quickly," Lorenzo replies.

"So when was this built? This wasn't here when I was," Ray commented, looking around at the slightly dim, pub-like area.

"If I remember, it opened about a month after you left."

"Talk about bad timing," Josh chuckles. Kara rests her paw on Ray's thigh, who almost shot up from surprise.

"Another place we can spend together. After all, you _do_ owe me," Kara sweetly purrs, just loud enough for only Ray to hear. Ray quickly gets a spreading blush while putting his own hand on her paw.

"Yeah…" Everyone else mutters while uncomfortably shifting around at the sight. They didn't hear what Kara said, but they had a slight guess judging by their gazes. Bianca however, starts laughing.

"What?" Ray and Kara both ask. The human girl puts both her elbows on the table before resting her arms on the table as well.

"Awkward and embarrassing moments are always so funny," Bianca giggled. That's when they all started to reminisce about awkward and embarrassing moments, sharing some of them.

"Oh my God. I remember this one time when Lucy still had my human form, and we went out to eat some soup at a café. Once we got them soup, she buries her face into the soup and slurps. Then she starts flailing around with soup on her face because it was so hot! And the fact that she couldn't talk made it even funnier because she just pretty much danced around the café!" Bianca burst out laughing. Lucia grew a deep red as she guiltily giggled. Everybody laughed along with the two.

"Wait, when was this?" Josh scoffed at his sister on his right.

"When she was learning how to eat like a human!" Bianca laughed even harder. Lucia put on a "Hey!" face.

"Ahh, don't worry, It was more awkward for me, trust me." Bianca says as the laughter died down.

"Hey, you know how to eat, right?" Kara asks, prodding Josh with her elbow and teasing Lucia even more. Josh and Kara had a couple of more chortles before looking at the girl with a pout and crossed arms.

"We're just teasing Lucy," Kara sighed, imagining how awkward it must have been for both of them.

"Oh, here's an awkward moment," Lucia chirped.

* * *

(Excerpt from Trigger)

_Cyphrus got out of the bed and realized that he was wrapped in bandages and he had a white patient's gown on him. Cyphrus poked his head out the door, looking left and right. He wondered why the hospital was quiet. He then found the five people in the waiting room. Latias was the only one awake, Latios' and Ash's head on her shoulders. He laughed and approached the girl looking out of the window, smiling. He couldn't remember the last time she smiled like that while he was here._

_"Got a little weight on your shoulders?" Latias looked left, at Cyphrus. She blushed, shyly nodding._

_"Oh yeah, that's right. You can't-"_

_Before Cyphrus could finish, a voice interrupted._

_"Sir," Cyphrus turned to a nurse._

_"Please go back to your bed, you're in a very unstable condition." Cyphrus cracked his bandaged neck and rotated his arms. The nurse grimaced with a sickened expression._

_"I'm stable," Cyphrus replied. "Besides, my bed's kinda occupied."_

_The nurse then put on a stern face._

_"Sir, please go back to your bed." Cyphrus put his hands up in defense._

_"Okay, okay! I'll go!" He backed into the room. The nurse then looked at Latias with a strange look._

_"Do you know him?" Latias shook her head and pretended that she didn't know him. The nurse oddly looked at the awkward position she was in._

_"Okay, this is a weird day..." The nurse turned around from where she came from. She then hears the doors open and Lily stumble out of the door. She fell at Latias's feet, softly snoring while she curled into a ball again. Latias sweat-dropped,_

'This is so awkward,' _Latias shook her head and silently laughed._

* * *

"Pika! Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu then waves his arms for attention, remembering a time himself. They all looked at him; sadly Lorenzo and Bianca couldn't understand his chattering. Ray raises his hand to quiet the mouse,

"I'll translate." He then closed his eyes briefly before reopening them. He started a telepathic communications line, and was translating every word that Pikachu was saying. Pikachu's poke-speak then turned human.

"Okay! So…"

* * *

(Excerpt from Trigger)

_"Alright! I'm starving!" Ash yelled as he burst towards his long waited meal. He saw Latias and was too busy looking at her to notice a crack in the ground which made him trip. He stumbled and Latias turned to see him coming at her with great force. They both screeched as they made contact and rolled on the floor. Pikachu stood a distance away from them and just laughed. When they stopped rolling, Ash landed on top of her with his face inches away from hers and blushed like he never had before. He looked into her eyes and realized that it was Latias not Bianca, which made him turn more red. Latias, wide eyed, also blushed and couldn't move. Seeing Ash this close blurred her mind completely._

_Ash tried to get up off of Latias, but his arm failed him and he fell on top of her again. Pikachu was now bawling at this time. He winced as his casted arm hit the floor. Latias broke from her little trance and gently pushed Ash up so that he could get himself up. When he was up, he reached towards Latias with his hand to help her up. Latias grasped his arm as he pulled her up... a bit too hard though._

_This time, Latias stumbled and fell on Ash, who then tripped on his own shoes and fell. The two were in the same position again except Latias was on top of Ash. Pikachu rolled on the ground laughing his ass off. Now, no one could tell the difference between a strawberry and their faces. Latias got up and Ash used his arm this time to get up and they both stared at each other for a lifelong time before Pikachu shocked Ash awake. Pikachu held his paw (Or hand or... whatever) on his mouth trying his best not to laugh, but he failed miserably. He bolted to the garden before Ash or Latias could say a word._

* * *

"That was so funny, Ash was so quiet for a long time after that too!" Pikachu started to snicker, telling how he remembered the incident and how he was laughing at the two. Ray started to bawl, Josh was scoffing, Lucia was blushing and smiling, Bianca and Kara were both giggling while Lorenzo just guffawed.

"That's so cute though," Kara aww'd. Lucia just stayed quiet, dreaming about her boy.

"Ah, now hold on a second. You think _that_ is awkward? Wait till you hear-" Ray started. Kara abruptly turns to Ray and covers his mouth with a paw; her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Ray! That's too embarrassing!" Kara started to blush furiously.

"No it's not, not for me!" Ray snickers, pulling her paw away to speak again.

"Ray!" Kara smacked Ray's shoulder with a paw.

"I'm going to tell them anyway, and you can't stop me," Ray teases in a playful tone.

"No! Ah!" Kara just buries her muzzle in her paws, hiding her now strawberry-red face from view.

"Okay, this was before we were going out so…"

* * *

A female Lucario and a Latios are in an office like area, filled with cubicles. Very small, tight cubicles.

"_Oh! Hello Ray," The female Lucario bumped into the Latios, in one of the cubicles. The Latios was typing away with his three claws at an extraordinary speed; just finishing up a report from their last mission together._

"Hey Kara, what's up?" _The Latios asks. He turned around and smiled. _

"_Want to go out for lunch with a couple of other people?" Kara sincerely asked, a bit shy. _

"Alright, sure. Just need to finish this paragraph. I'll be done in a second."

"_Hey, can I come? I need a break too," A human asked from the cell from the opposite side of the tight hallway, across from Ray's spot._

"_Sure," Kara turned around to face the human man, who wore a suit._

"Alright, I'm done," _Ray says while backing out of his cell, unaware of who was right behind him. Both of them turned around at the same time, but were a mere inch apart when they did so. Ray and Kara ended up accidentally kissing one another. Both of them had surprised looks on their faces, and they broke apart as quickly as they kissed._

"_Oh! Sorry!" Both of them say simultaneously, red tints on both of their faces. Kara, having her strong legs and the room, quickly backs up. However, out of embarrassment she ends up going faster then she thought and hits the wall of the human's office, flipping herself over it before hitting her head on the desk, then landing in the trash can. Everyone in the office turns to see the large noise._

"_Oh crap, are you okay?!?" Ray and the human both ask. Kara, still spooked, emerges from the bin and quickly walks away without a word; desperately avoiding eye contact with Ray while her face glows red._

* * *

"That was the day I was planning to ask her out too!" Ray laughs. Kara looks away; clearly embarrassed by the way she tried to hide her face in her paws. That didn't help much; her face is so red, it practically glows. Everybody was laughing, but it didn't last long because of Kara's clear embarrassment.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad," Ray said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She turns and gives Ray a devilish glare.

"You're getting punished tonight… I'll get you back," Kara growled. Ray sweat-dropped while gulping...she sounded mad and bad things...very, very bad things happen when she's mad.

"Okay..." Luckily for Ray, Kara's attention gets diverted when the food comes; her ruby eyes now train themselves on the steak instead of the disguised Latios. Every meal winds up being a lot larger than they expected; especially for Pikachu who gets stuck with a plate about twice his size.

"Oh man," Josh says, staring at the plate. Since he's never been to a restaurant in human form, he's surprised at the food and how neatly ordered it all was. Now he has to resist burying his face into the plate like a pokemon would, but the food looks so-o-o good.

"Haven't you been to a restaurant before?" Bianca asks, snapping Josh out of his trance.

"Once, and that was on accident. I was flying around while invisible and accidentally went in through the doors. I got stuck in some weird, sushi restaurant for about an hour!"

"I bet you smelled like fish once you got home!" Ray remarks, stabbing a fork into a large piece of ravioli before sticking it in his mouth.

"I did, man… now, how do you…?" Josh asks, holding his fork like a serial killer would hold a dagger; right above his head. He really looked ready to try and stab all the little noodles in the spaghetti.

"Josh, you're supposed to do it like this!" Lucy exclaims, bringing his arm down before he attracted attention or hurt himself. She quietly starts explaining how to eat spaghetti and how to eat with a fork.

"Oh boy, this is kind of awkward isn't it?" Lorenzo rhetorically asks, watching Josh try to pick up the noodles. Josh numerously tried to spin the fork to pick up the noodles, but they all fell before they got into his mouth.

"Stupid noodles!" Josh grunts, glaring at the food. After four more tries he finally succeeds, while everyone cheers.

"Yay! Josh can eat spaghetti!" Bianca laughs. Josh glares at his 'sis', but only causes Bianca to laugh harder. In defeat, Josh glances to his left over at Kara. Her paws are tightly grasping the knife and fork as she cut herself a piece of steak.

"Isn't that hard?" Lucy asks. Kara looks up and smiles,

"No, not after a while." She happily replies, as she brought the fork into her mouth and chews. The group kept making small talk, but most of the time they spent eating dinner. When they were all done, they resumed talking again.

"Wow, that was some steak," Kara grins, causing her canines to glisten in the light. Ray slumps back in his chair and contently pats his stomach.

"We've got to come back here sometime," Ray says, satisfied with his food. Josh, who finally experienced restaurant like food, seemed quite happy.

"So how was your first meal outside of the garden?" Lorenzo asks Josh. The younger Latios grins,

"It was so good!"

Lucy laughs when she sees her brother's expression. "I know right? That's what I thought when I had my first taste of human food outside of the garden."

Josh looks at Lucy, "You're lucky…"

As the plates get taken away, they started to talk some more. Most of them were stories...

"One time, I remember flying around the streets of Altomare, and I smacked right into a dead end," Josh started off.

Lucy gives him a strange look, "That was so random," She says, raising an eyebrow.

Josh looks back, "So? It hurt," he crossed his arms.

"You know what really hurts? Getting burning soup on your face!" Lucy said, laughing. Everybody else laughed along.

"I remember hitting my head under a bridge when I was riding a gondola in the waterways of Altomare," Lorenzo said. He also leaned back on his chair, looking out at the now darkening night. "I almost fell off!"

"But grandpa, you're not that tall," Bianca says, starting to giggle.

Lorenzo starts sulking, "Make fun of the short old man…"

Bianca was about to say something, but then something happened that derailed everything.

Someone burst through the doors, a man with a black trench coat. He has black hair with black eyes and seemed to be crazy. Why? He had a knife at a woman's throat.

"Nobody move! NOBODY MOVE GODDAMIT!" He screams. The knife rests at the blond woman's windpipe, who was crying and moving along with the man out of fear of being cut. The man starts glancing around while working his way through the restaurant, glancing back at the door occasionally.

"Show me the exit!" He yelled to a waiter, Jim.

He points a finger toward the bathrooms, "O-over there," He weakly answers. The man started to go with his hostage. Ray and Kara both stood up.

"_Knife size?"_ Ray asks, starting a telepathic communication line.

"_Six inch blade, switch,"_ Kara replies, watching the criminal's every tiny movement. Ray carefully puts his hands on his waist, feeling the concealed golden daggers that he had in his case.

"_Look at his aura, what can you see?"_ Ray asks, also eying the man as he starts making his way through the tables. Kara closes her eyes, tuning out the crowd of different colors to focus on his. Despite filtering out the mixture of colors resulting from thoughts, feelings, and personalities; this aura field just won't settle on a single color.

"_He's… running from someone,"_ Ray said, "_That's all I can get out of his head."_

"_His aura's distorted; this human's not doing well. Maybe he's drunk, or on drugs_," Kara growls. Her growl attracted the attention of the man. He then turned around his entire body with the woman blocking him.

"Sit down! Both of you! I swear, I'll kill her and grab someone else!" The two sit down, knowing that he probably could and would.

Right when he was about to reach the exit, another person comes in. A man with short blond hair calmly walks in through the front door; not even looking twice at the knife in the other man's hand.

"What the hell?!? Why the hell won't you stay away!?!" The man pressed harder on the woman's throat, drawing a little blood. The woman whimpers before screaming in distress.

The blond man didn't even do anything for a couple seconds; just stare at the other man and his hostage with a blank, bored look on his face. He then raises a hand and points at the criminal.

"Get him." he orders to the air.

A whole window explodes as a gigantic lightning-bolt comes flying into the restaurant, nailing the man dead in his side and hitting him with so much power that the knife goes flying out in front of him while he flies into a wall; freeing the hostage at last. She didn't get off scot-free though, for the brief second that she was in contact with her captor some of the bolt arced into her. She isn't hurt as much as he is, but it was still enough to cause her to fall unconsciously to the floor.

Kara and Ray, as well as everyone else, just stare at the blond man, when out of nowhere another figure appears, this one taller and hidden beneath a cloak, his face hidden by the hood that was up and over the top of his head.

While the sound of sirens starts to come from outside, both the blond and hooded men walk over to the bodies and pick them (with the blond grabbing the knife) up before walking back towards the door.

"Do not worry, we have taken care of it. Please, enjoy your evening." Both of them say without turning back to face the patrons. The blond stops for a second and turns to Jim, "I apologize for the window, we will get the money for a replacement to you as soon as possible," is all he says before hurrying up to catch his larger counterpart. As they walked out, the back of their clothes, the cloak for the hooded man and the black jacket the blond man wore, reveal a single word to the crowd.

"_What does it say?"_ Kara asks Ray while she closes her eyes to inspect their aura signatures.

"…_It says… FUZE."_ Ray frowns. He never heard of anything remotely close to FUZE before. "_We'll look them up eventually. For now, let's try to forget the incident. The last thing we want is Josh and Lucy on another death adventure."_

Kara nods as she and Ray look back at the group; their faces were stricken with confusion.

"When was the last time something happened like that?" Lorenzo asks while they walked out of the restaurant. The group watched the police shake hands with the two FUZE men while the criminal and his hostage are carried away in ambulances; the police and the FUZE men happily talking to one another and laughing at some joke.

"Not for a while," Bianca replied. They tried to forget the moment by walking down the moonlit streets.

"That was…" Lucy paused, a bit frightened. "Scary."

"Yeah, I can imagine being held at knife-point," Josh says, putting an arm around his sister for an attempt at comfort.

"I already have," Kara states, rubbing her paw against her throat and shivering. Ray nods and draws her a little closer while the others stare at the two. They all turned around, however, when a police boat speeds down the waterways; the blond FUZE man sitting in the back but the hooded one nowhere to be seen.

Pikachu was fully alert, until he sees another Pikachu with a red flower tucked behind her ear. Ash's Pikachu blushed while she and her trainer walked by, which only becomes more pronounced when she smiled at him. He smiles back and waves a little while they went around a corner; then remembered something back in the garden, Lucy mentioned a certain Pikachu named Amy…

"Pikachu!" Lucy chirps, snapping Pikachu out of his thoughts. "Hurry up or you'll get left behind!"

Pikachu squeaks something back before hurrying after the crowd, quickly hopping onto Lucy's shoulders and snuggling up to the side of her head.

"Alright, we have to split here," Ray states.

"Oh… Okay then," Lucy says, looking down at her feet.

Ray quickly walks up to her and tightly hugs his niece. "Stay safe," Ray says while looking over her shoulder at Josh, who nods. The two separate to let Ray hug his nephew.

"Take care." Josh says.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Kara managed to smile. All of them smiled also.

"Yeah, goodnight!" Bianca said. All of them said their good-nights and goodbyes. Then Ray and Kara turn left while the rest of the group walked on straight.

Ray sighs. "We shouldn't worry about it too much. We're here to relax for now," he says.

Kara sighs too. "You're right." She admits, slipping her paw into his hand. The two look at each other, gazing into the other's eyes to see their love looking back. After a second, they walk into the shadows of the buildings getting cast by the moon.

"Now about that bed..." Ray chuckles.

"You'll be my bed." Kara replies, leaning towards Ray so their shoulders touch.

"You'll be my blanket." Ray counters, kissing Kara on the cheek. She blushes while starting to giggle.

The two come across a stairway that leads down to a canal-level sidewalk that stretches onward alongside one of the waterways. They descend and follow that route when Ray suddenly pulls Kara into an embrace from the back. They laugh a little before leaning up against the wall to their left, part of the street-level sidewalk; Kara's back against the wall and Ray's hands on her sides.

Kara rests her paws on the sides of his head, gently stroking his face. She shuts her eyes to view her love in his golden brilliance before pulling his lips to hers, beginning a long kiss. While returning her kiss, Ray's hands slide down to her waist; gently stroking Kara's fur in the process and getting her to shiver a little.

Once they separate, both of them smile and walk onward.

"You want to fly back home?" Ray asks while putting an arm around Kara's waist. Kara then placed her head on top of Ray's shoulder.

"Fly me back home." Kara replies, yawning a little. Ray's body glows with a bright light before dimming, leaving Kara standing with her head in the crook of a Latios' wing. She looks up at the Latios' face, staring into the depths of Ray's golden eyes.

"_Let's fly,_" Ray smiles. Kara returns it before climbing onto Ray's back. Once she's steady, he lowers himself closer to the ground, sweeping his wings back to get ready for takeoff.

"Now, let's just be care-FUL!" Kara yelled while they turned invisible and speed away on top of the water.

A wake follows them on the canal until Ray lifts up and flies into the sky, soaring up above the clouds. He becomes visible again at this height, grinning as he and Kara look up at the spectacular sky above them; countless stars and a giant full moon.

As the wind of Ray's flight washes over them, Kara's aura-receptors sweep out behind her like a beautiful, rippling sheet. Ray gently slows down before idly floating in place, allowing Kara to lie down on his back and wrap her arms around his neck.

'_It's so beautiful,'_ Kara thought, making sure Ray picks it up. He turns his neck around to look at her.

"_Not as beautiful as you,"_ Ray smiles.

Kara giggles. "_You're so sweet,"_ Kara manages to give Ray a peck on the nose before he turns around.

He inwardly sighs...he felt so high up that nobody could touch them. No one would care about the two of them up here. He felt so...so...alive.

Then his adrenaline starts pumping and Ray takes off again, blurring the stars into bright lines.

"Ray!" Kara exclaims, laughing at his recklessness.

"_Get ready…"_ Ray thinks, smirking. Suddenly he stops. After a few seconds of his momentum propelling him, he let gravity take hold and pull them back down head first. As the clouds rushed by again, Ray resumed his invisibility, grinning as Kara held onto his neck tightly, more than hard enough to choke him, but he didn't care for now.

Almost as quickly as he started falling, Ray stops over the roof of their apartment building right side up. Kara gets off him, but topples over from the shock of their free-fall, staring up at Ray. She materialized from falling off of Ray, and her large red eyes were reflecting the slight haze that was distorting a small portion of the large moon.

"That was so scary," She said, looking at him for a long time with a frightened expression. Ray only laughed while turning back into a human.

"Catch you at the bottom!" Ray yells before running then jumping off the building.

Kara screams upon seeing him leap off a building, but after rushing over to look down, she quiets down. He hit the ground, but did it in such a way as to roll and disperse the energy instead of just going splat... just like a professional free-runner. She shakes her head before leaping off as well, performing the same maneuver and landing alongside Ray.

Kara smiles, "This place _is_ perfect for free-running," She says, getting Ray to laugh. They both walk through the front door, holding hands.

"Maybe we can teach the kids how to do it while we're here." Ray suggests, "If we have time to."

* * *

A key slides into a lock, before turning with the human hand that was holding it. The door swings aside to let Ray and Kara into their apartment.

Ray takes both of his knives out and sets them beside the gold case, which is leaning up against the wall. They didn't need to turn on the lights to see; the full moon is framed by the balcony doorway and is flooding the room with its pale glow.

Ray changes back into a Latios and stretches his neck out, yawning in the process. Yet another benefit of the apartment's large size; plenty of room for a large pokemon like him to stretch out in.

"_Ahhh, that feels good,"_ He says, listening to the gentle clicks of the door as Kara shuts and locks it.

Kara sits down on the carpet, her tail gently swishing back and forth. "I'm pretty tired." she half-says, half-mumbles.

Ray settles down about a foot from her and looks out at the moon, which is starting to hide behind a couple clouds; like it was embarrassed for looking in at this couple. The balcony door is still open from when they left, which lets a gentle night-breeze flutter in and rustle through the occupants' fur.

Resisting a sigh from the soft breeze, Ray lays down on the floor; spreading his wings out on the soft carpet and yawning. He closes his eyes and lets the sigh out, "_Come on Kara, its going to get cold soon!_" he jokes, getting Kara to move next to him.

She glances out at the moon before lying down on her stomach and crawling up next to Ray. He shivers a little at the feeling of her fur tickling his body as hers came closer. One of his eyes opens to see her looking back with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Too bad you told that story, we can't have fun tonight for punishment."

Ray pouts. "_Aw come on. I was looking forward to it..." _he groans.

Kara closes her eyes and slides herself further up until she's face to face with Ray. "That _is_ too bad..." she replies before kissing him, playfully sticking her tongue into his mouth. After a moment of surprise, Ray lets his tongue play around with hers; all the while watching those soft red eyes that could always cloud his thoughts.

She slides her arms under Ray's neck, taking care not to stab or scratch him with one of her spikes, as Ray strokes her back with his; letting his claws gently rake through Kara's fur, which he knew she loved. He knew because he felt her legs tighten up a little, and from past experiences she only did that when she felt pleasure.

"_Ah well,_" Ray sadly says. He closes his eyes while their stroking and kiss end, but then feels something _very_ strange. Once they separated, Kara started nibbling at the end of his ear. It wasn't creepy or strange or painful...it was actually kind of nice.

Or it would be if he wasn't ticklish there...

Ray's warbles of laughter echo in the empty room for a second as he twitches around in a futile attempt of escape, with Kara's arms around his neck he wasn't going anywhere.

"_Ah! Aha! Kara!_" He wheezes through the laughs, which continue until she stops.

Kara gazes into Ray's teary, golden eyes; her face inches from his. "I've always wanted to try that." she winks before sliding down a little and tucking her head under Ray's chin.

To try and exact revenge, Ray tries to nibble her ear, but the only response he gets is a slight moan. What Ray failed to pick up was the clenching of her teeth and the high resistance from laughing even harder than Ray. Thinking quickly, she tried to find a way to stop him nibbling his ear.

"That feels good... we'll try that next time." she says, her voice muffled by his down. Ray, frustrated, stopped nibbling. But before he could find out how Kara was resisting the urge to giggle, he heard her, "Good-night Ray." she softly whispers, holding him a little closer and using his neck as a pillow.

Ray chuckles, without a clue, before kissing the top of her head.

"_Good-night Kara. Love you._" He replies, closing his eyes again and sweeping a wing over her as a blanket.

Kara smiles and licks his neck.

"Love you too."

* * *

"_Phase one is already going underway. We've already taken out one of the major gang leaders. They'll disperse like Rattata later. The next gang is getting eradicated as we speak,"_ A black hooded man said while he looked over the whole city of Altomare on a single building.

"_Excellent. Do not call back until you get the other gangs eliminated. We cannot risk the compromise of our communication line any longer,"_ The highly distorted voice spoke. The man nodded.

"_Understood. Ephesus out." _

'_Hmph. Some street rats actually know what they're doing. Fighting back like that,'_ The man thinks to himself, pulling out a pair of brass knuckles he took from a dead gangster. Beneath the hood, he grins a wicked grin at his ill-gotten trophy.

_'Such a shame.'_

* * *

CJ: OooOOoo, so what or who is FUZE? Or those men?

DB: That along with many other questions will be answered in the chapters to come. See ya next time!

CJ: Later!


	5. Street Rats

CJ: Next chapter ready to go!

DB: Be warned! This behemoth of a chapter has over 17,000 words!

CJ: (chuckles nervously) Yea...my bad.

DB: Well, I did add some of this literary mass.

CJ: You only added 3,000 of the 17,000!

DB: I said some, not all.

CJ: Well, regardless, enjoy this chapter!

~!~

"_Reports are that more and more gang members are being arrested and turning themselves in from the FUZE task force everyday. The mayor of Altomare thanks them for their efforts; they have already done so much to clean the streets of our beautiful city." _The news anchorwoman reports on the TV, her blond hair swaying a little in the wind.

"Grandpa, are you listening to this?" Bianca asks, not wanting to get up. Pikachu is lying on top of a rubber mat, which in turn is on top of her thighs. The little mouse's dinner was taking revenge, leaving Pikachu to clutch his stomach in slight pain and sneeze every now and then.

"Pi...Pi-ika...pika-CHU! CHU! CHU!" He sneezes, releasing electric jolts at every "chu" and getting the TV to flicker in sync.

"Poor little guy, we shouldn't have let you eat that food last night!" Bianca laughs just as Lorenzo walks in from the workshop.

"FUZE? The same corporation that helped us last night?" Lorenzo asks, brushing some sawdust off his hands from the work he finished.

"Uh huh. Apparently, they're sweeping the streets for gangsters," Bianca said as she strokes Pikachu with a rubber-gloved hand. The mouse weakly groans.

"_Where they came from is still a mystery, but they are doing such an altruistic act for us. If you see a FUZE member today, be sure to thank them for their efforts."_ The lady smiles. A picture appears over her left shoulder; bold white letters over a dark blue background spelling out FUZE, while a hooded figure is just below it. The picture shows a typical FUZE member; such a common sight now that you can't swing a stunned Skitty without hitting one.

"A bit suspicious don't you think?" Lorenzo asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you kidding? Those hoodies make them look like gangsters themselves," Bianca replies. Pikachu makes a more painful groan, prompting Bianca to roll him over and start scratching his belly.

"As long as those thugs are out of here," Lorenzo shrugs before throwing back the rest of his glass of water, then going back to work on the gondola.

"CHU!" Pikachu sneezes, managing to roll over and discharge the zap into the ground instead of Bianca's face. She sweat-drops

"Jeez, that could've been bad!"

~!~

Josh and Lucy walk down a street beside each other, watching as a purple robed FUZE member guides a handcuffed thug into a FUZE boat; a long sleek craft as dark as the fur of a Weavile. The thug's feet were also cuffed together; forcing him to walk in a weird shuffly movement.

"Those guys are really stepping things up." Josh remarks, eying the two carefully; ready for any sneaky moves that would harm his sister.

"Alright you Rattata, step down into the-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it you piece of _shit_!" The thug hisses. He was the same boy that harassed Lucy, only with clean shorts.

"Hey, that's the guy who tried to hit on me," Lucy says, getting a little pissed. Her expression softens quickly, seeing through his snarl to the scared guy underneath.

The FUZE man slugs the thug in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. The teen doubles over and plummets into the dark waters. People were now watching as the thug hopelessly plummets into the dark canal water. The FUZE man stares, then gets on the boat and drives off, not a care for the helpless gangster. Lucy watches in horror as the thug doesn't resurface, then quickly takes off Ash's cap and her hair-band, thrusts them into Josh's hands, then dives into the water.

Horrified, Josh runs and stops at the water's edge. "Lucy!" he yells, trying to peer through the deep water to find his sister. Why hasn't Ray taught him how to sight-share as a human yet?!

A few seconds pass before Lucy resurfaces, the thug beside her with his cuffed arms hooked over her neck. He unhooks himself from the hiding Lati and loops the cuffs over a drain pipe nearby; using it to pull himself onto land while Lucy climbs out beside him.

Once back on sturdy ground, the thug coughs out some water and gasps for air, then looks up at Lucy as she pulls her hair back into a ponytail then takes her beloved possession from her bro.

"Of all people, _you_ save me?" The goon asks in surprise.

"Just because you hit on me doesn't mean you have to die," Lucy smiles. Josh looks at her with a bewildered expression; sometimes she's impossible to understand.

"Thanks, I owe you one." The thug grunts while struggling upright. "Anyone got a paper clip or something?" The thug asks the crowd who had assembled to watch. They quickly disperse, but another fifteen-year-old with spiked up black hair and green eyes hurries over.

"Jeez, DJ...you love getting yourself into trouble don't ya?" The boy asks, taking a paper clip out of his own pocket, twisting it with precise expertise and then shoving it into the lock in the handcuffs. With a quick twist the handcuffs fall away from the paper-clip.

The boy twists the clip around in a blur again, then slips them into the feet-cuffs and turns again. Cuff and clip clatter to the ground in seconds.

"How do you do it that fast JT?"

"Thanks for saving him. Please don't turn us in!" JT says as they run off. Josh stares at Lucy.

"He hit on you?!?"

"Uncle Ray took care of it, don't worry." Josh looks away to find the cuffs lying at his feet. Josh grabs them and puts them in his vest pocket.

"What're you doing?" Lucy asks. Josh turns to her and shrugs.

"Maybe it'll be useful later. Come on, lets go home. Ray and Kara are probably waiting for us." They both turn and walk toward Lorenzo's house.

~!~

"Nice day huh?" Ray asks, walking next to Kara; both enjoying the sunlight washing over the entire city.

"Guess so, it's not that bad." Kara replies, looking down into a canal to see a FUZE boat speed by. "It's too hot though..." she concedes, slightly annoyed. Lucario are naturally sensitive to high temperatures, but Kara's always seemed more sensitive then others.

"Want to fly?" Kara doesn't even have to reply, just give Ray an adventurous look along with a smile.

They run into a dark alley, going deep enough so that passerby wouldn't see them.

Kara gives a fast check before saying, "Coast cl-"

"Wait." Ray interrupts, sensing something that Kara missed. They both turn to the far end of the alley to see two boys run into view and stop, doubled over and panting. Ray and Kara slip against the wall, Ray camouflaging the two of them.

"Jesus, I was about to die there," one figure says.

"Who was that? She saved your ass!" The other says, putting his hands behind his head. This one had on jeans, a white shirt with some weird black design on one side, and a chain connecting a belt loop to his back pocket.

"I dunno, I hit on her earlier though. Never knew that she would actually save me later." Ray frowns, now he recognizes them.

"God damn, I never knew hitting on a girl would actually help is this situation! We have to get back; do you know what's gonna happen to us if the fuzz ever get us? Some of the guys back at our hideout say that they freakin' torture gangs over there!"

"Tauros-shit, the authorities would never allow that. You got a piece on you?"

"Yeah. I'm always loaded, you know that."

"I need to grab mine, come on. We need to tell the HH," The figures start running again.

"Just hold on a minute." Kara growls, breaking out of the camouflage and blocking their path.

The second figure got into range, his green eyes widening. He immediately reaches for the gun under his shirt, but freezes when an Aura Sphere the size of a basket-ball appears in Kara's hands.

"Shit!" The first says, raising his fists. He didn't have a chance against a pokemon, but it was instinctive to get ready for a brawl.

"You know we can't go against a Lucario with this thing!" The second boy whispers.

"You don't have to. All you need to do is just tell me some things and we'll let you go." Kara says, keeping her eyes locked on them.

They glance at each other in bewilderment at a talking pokemon. The first boy shakes it off and snarls "What do you want?"

Kara's eyes narrow and she replies with a much more menacing snarl.

"Information." Ray answers stepping beside Kara. "First of all, you're the one who hit on my niece." he adds, resting a hand on the concealed dagger at his side.

"She's your niece?!? Aw damn man, I'm sorry! She saved my ass back there, almost drowned!" The first boy says, putting his fists down.

"Sorry doesn't cut it for now. By the fuzz, you mean the FUZE members, right?" Ray asks, not letting his guard down.

"Yeah! Ever since they got here, other gangs keep on disappearing! They don't even give them trials for false accusations!" The second boy says, drawing his hand away from the concealed handgun.

"Alright, that's pretty much all I need to know." Ray replies, pulling his hand away from the dagger. He glances at his fiancé and then back at the goons. "You might want to apologize. I've cooled off, but she hasn't."

As if to further the point, Kara intensifies the glow of the sphere; almost to point of it becoming blindingly blue.

The two quickly utter a fast apology to the pokemon. She closes her eyes and looks at their auras; mostly fear and vengeance, but a lot of innocence is present as well.

She lets the sphere dissolve.

Ray notices this and stands aside. "You can go now. Go! Get!" The two look at each other, then run past.

"Thanks!" The second one yells before they round a corner and get out of sight.

~!~

"So that's what happened," Josh mutters, sticking his hands in his pockets. He didn't look at his sister, instead looking forward, trying to find Lorenzo's shop through the crowd of people.

"Uh huh, I guess we'll need to tell Uncle Ray about the FUZE guy," Lucy says, now dried and looking lively. She was also looking forward, but kept playing with the ponytail that she pulled through the back of Ash's cap.

"Why'd you do it?" Josh asks, now looking at his sister.

"Everyone needs a second chance," Lucy replies. She exhales and clasps her hands behind her. "You had yours, so why not give others one?"

Josh was a little surprised at Lucy's answer, then looks away; ashamed.

"I guess you're right." Josh concedes. His gaze falls to watch his sneakers hitting the ground.

"Big brother, it's okay." Lucy smiles, gently grabbing his hand, "Its just the way you are. Just try being a little more selfless."

"Thanks sis. Come on, Lorenzo's shop is right up ahead." They let go and head inside, first noticing a sick Pikachu sitting in a large bowl of hot water.

"That should help with the sneezing, but we should probably get some medicine for that stomach." Kara says, gently patting the ill-mouse's head with a wet cloth. Pikachu had his eyes closed and seemed pretty content in the warm water.

At least until he explodes with a "CHU!" and a Thunderbolt straight into the water, shocking himself.

"Its not fair," Pikachu croaks in poke'tongue, "Lucy and Josh don't get sick, but I do?" Pikachu opens his eyes to come inches away from the human face of Lucy.

"Pi-CHU!" Pikachu exclaims in both shock (**AN: pun ftw**) and as a sneeze into the water again. Lucy giggles, touching Pikachu's nose with her finger.

"Hey, guess what happened a few minutes ago?" Josh asks his relatives as they walk from the kitchen into the shop entrance.

"What?" Ray asks back, his black button-up collared shirt transforming into a simpler black T-shirt.

"Some guy ended up running away from the FUZE guys while we were walking around," Josh said, handing Ray the cuffs and the distorted paper clip.

"He escaped?" Ray skeptically asks, raising an eyebrow.

"No, Lucy saved him after he got punched in the gut and fell in the water." Josh looks past the older Latios to see Lucy giggling while toying around with Pikachu. "I just don't get her."

"It came from your mother, you should learn from her," Ray smirks, taking the occasion a bit lightly. He glances at the paper clip that is still lodged in the lock. He takes it out to examine the delicate twists designed to fit into every corner of the lock.

"Who did this?"

"The guy with him; black hair and green eyes. His hair was kind of short and he had on a white shirt with a black design on it." Josh describes, looking into his uncle's eyes with complete seriousness. Ray half-frowns.

"We bumped into them earlier in the street; I don't think the FUZE Corporation is here for a good cause..." Ray answers, returning the stare. "I'll keep these for now, I need to find out who these people are and what they're capable of."

"You can do all that from looking at a bunch of handcuffs?" Josh asks, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

"Kara and I work wonders," Ray smirks. Josh just laughed and shook his head at the true meaning behind his comment.

"I'm going to have to get used to these jokes about you and Kara," Josh says as he walks off towards Lucy.

Kara comes over from helping Lorenzo and looks at the wet cuffs. "Evidence?"

Ray nods. "Yeah. Do you know what these guys are like from their aura signatures?" Ray asks, still peering through the opened locks.

"I can probably trace a small bit of it that's still left on the cuffs; I'll give you a detailed report later. What's really important is that those two were serious back there, all the information they gave us was either true or a lie that they don't know of," Kara states as Ray pulls over chairs for the two of them. The Latios sits down, but the Lucario remains standing. "Who are these FUZE guys anyway?" Kara asks.

Ray sighs and slouches forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Whoever they are, they're not friendly and don't follow the rules." Lorenzo, who was walking by for another tool, puts his hand down on the back of Ray's chair.

"The mayor seems to be oblivious also, FUZE is all over the news." the old man says. Ray glances back at the aged face of his friend. "Do you think they're after the DMA also?" Lorenzo asks, looking into Ray's hard-gold eyes.

"If they are, doesn't that mean that they're going to need another Latios or Latias to activate it?" Bianca asks, standing next to Kara with her arms crossed.

"Yeah. We need to make sure that they don't take either Josh, Lucy, or even both of them at once. Josh already knows how painful it is..." Ray says, cringing at the thought of the forceful release of so much power.

"I won't let both of them go through that pain again..." Bianca says, closing her eyes and trying to force away the memories of Josh getting tortured by the very machine designed to help the Altomarians.

"Don't worry about it, I'll teach them how to defense themselves, all you have to do is just be strong for them." Ray says, looking dead into Bianca's eyes with determination. She nods before Ray glances back at Lorenzo, "You gave them the swords right?" he asks while standing up.

"I've introduced the swords to them, but they haven't used them before."

"That's fine, I'll teach them how. They're in the chest right?" Ray asks, walking towards the closet.

"Yes, of course." Lorenzo replies, following him. "I wouldn't disobey your brother-in-law now would I?"

Ray grins, "As odd as he was, I wouldn't either. Oh, I'm going to need to use the phone after this." He replies, moving some of the random jackets, shirts, overalls, and dresses out of the way. After working his way to the back, he presses in part of the wall, getting the cases to slide out of a secret panel.

_I'm never going to understand his fondness for closets..._ Ray mentally sighs before taking the cases out. One is deep-blue and the other crimson-red, but both are glowing and much larger than Ray's own case; despite these only holding one set of weapons each. "I never thought that they would actually give up their swords for Josh and Lucy."

"I can, it is tradition isn't it?" Lorenzo asks as Ray walks by. He stops and thinks for a moment, then shrugs.

"Since the Hanging Gardens don't exist anymore, I guess it is."

~!~

"My Lords, one of the gangsters apparently drowned in the canals," a hooded FUZE figure reports. He's present in a darkened room in front of nine other hooded agents. Unlike this one; who has a completely purple robe, each of the others has a double-helix pattern detailed on the front of their robes, each a different color. For these special nine there is also a holographic image flickering in front of them; a deep blue hexagon with a bright white number ranging from 01 to 09. They surrounded the lower ranking member in a semi-circle.

"_Have you covered it up as an accident?"_ Number 04 asks. The voices were completely distorted, making the true identity unrecognizable.

"Yes. We have," the un-distorted grunt replies.

"_Do not lie to us; we know that you intentionally attacked the gangster and left him for dead. The sniveling Rattata escaped his fate with the help of a citizen. We have eyes everywhere, you cannot fool us." _Number 07 hisses, throwing a robed arm accusingly at the grunt.

"_We cannot afford to reveal our true colors just yet. We have to appear as them; following their codes, not ours."_ Number 05 agrees.

"_Relay the order to the rest of the 'police' units. We will be watching." _Number 08 adds.

"Yes my lord," the grunt says, bowing respectfully to the masked superiors.

"_Wait. Have you discovered the DMA yet? Were you able to reach it?"_ Number 01 asks. The grunt stands back up.

"N-no, we haven't my lord. We are trying our best, but heavily armed guards with highly trained pokemon are guarding the museum," the grunt cautiously replies. His voice was wavering greatly; as if the only thing he wanted was to run away from the icy-cold voice of Number 01.

"_First of all, you savages will address me as a lady."_ 01 angrily spits, _"Even though it may not sound like it, that's what I am. Second, you must follow the code of the Altomarians to make sure we have complete access to the very best defensive mechanism in the world. Do. You. Understand?"_

"Yes my lo- my lady!" the grunt replies, shaking a little. The rest of the superiors stood still; not moving an inch.

"_Good. You are dismissed."_ A door opens behind all of the figures, flooding the room with light although no-one's faces became lit. They shuffle out of the room one by one, their holographic numbers disappearing as each left. Finally, just Number 04 and Number 01 are left.

"_You do know what we are getting into right?"_ Number 04 asks.

"_Of course. I have been to Altomare myself after all. It is time we took a step towards the new future; the future that will change us all. It is also time for the darkness to be released so it may rain terror upon the world once again. We will start over, starting with this city. With the technology that we have, we will use the darkness to carve a path towards a new light; a new future. All we have to do is just start the world over."_ Number 01 replies.

"_I understand. May FUZE prosper." _Number 04 says.

"_No. May the darkness prosper."_ Number 01 corrects before vanishing.

~!~

Ray twirls his sheathed katana blade in one hand before planting the end of into the ground, then gives a stern look at the two Latis floating in front of him.

"Welcome to Lati 101; here, you'll learn the basics of...well, everything. Also, you two will be attending 'school' every day from now on, and don't try faking sick; Kara can see right through it." Ray warns before placing his other hand on the sword hilt. "You'll also be receiving combat training, but breath easy; we won't start off there or on anything too hard."

An awkwardly silent breeze blows through the group, getting the fabric of Ray's black T-shirt and black cargo pants to rustle.

"_School?_" Josh asks.

"_For how long?"_ Lucy adds, tilting her head a little and getting Ash's cap to spin in that direction.

"As long as it needs to be, I promised to train you two. I'll teach you everything I know, but the rest is up to you. Bianca, Kara, and Lorenzo will help me, but relax; it shouldn't be that hard..." Ray smirks before adding, "At least _learning_ isn't."

Josh and Lucy look at each other in a mix of fear and confusion.

"You'll be going through some tough training, and relatives or not; there won't be any slack on my end." Ray evilly chuckles, "But again, you two aren't starting with your swords yet. You won't get to use those until you complete at least the first step. How about we start off with some stretching, it'll loosen up those muscles and joints," Ray reassuringly says before picking up his sword and disappearing in a flash.

Josh and Lucy's head shoot up in surprise. "_What the...?_" Josh asks as Ray reappears and starts walking towards them.

"Don't focus on me, focus on yourselves. Now, put your paws behind your head." Ray orders, putting his own hands behind his back.

The two Latis do so.

"Good. Now, Josh, hold still." Ray disappears from the sibling's sight.

"_What are you-?"_ Josh tries to ask before Ray cuts him off.

"Just look forward, and relax." Ray says from behind.

"_O-okay..."_ Josh says getting uneasy.

"_Uncle Ray's scaring me."_ Lucy telepathically tells her brother.

"I heard that." Ray remarks, getting the Latias to blush. Ray really was one of the most powerful Lati alive.

"_How long do we have to -YOW!"_ Josh suddenly screams. Lucy glances over to see Ray on Josh's back, holding each paw with a hand and twisting them into an unnatural position.

"_Uncle Ray!! What are you doing???!"_ Lucy shrieks.

"Both of you relax, especially you Josh. This is going to hurt. This is going to sting, but do NOT fly away or something worse will happen. Lesson one, discipline is everything." Ray calmly states.

Josh sucks in a quick gasp before clenching his jaw and shutting his eyes; the last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of his uncle and sister.

"Accept the pain, absorb it. Learn how to tolerate it. I know this hurts, I wanted to kill my teacher when he did it to me, but you have to do this. Its very important." Ray explains, twisting a little more. "This, believe it or not, is stretching. You're going to need it because the more flexible your arms are, the more you can take care of your wings and back."

Lucy quickly gasps as Kara lands on her back and starts doing the same. She let out a quick shriek before slamming her mouth shut.

"Are you sure this is supposed to help?" Kara asks, glancing at Ray with a hint of doubt.

"Yeah. Don't worry, just two more minutes." Josh and Lucy grimace before the amazing happens; the pain starts to recede as their muscles loosen up. After one more minute, the pain was all gone.

"_This isn't half bad now," _Josh remarks. Ray knowingly smiles at his nephew's head.

"_It feels kinda good to stretch,"_ Lucy adds, relaxing as best she could. Unlike Josh, she's got a much heavier load; a canine with a skeleton harder and stronger than steel.

"See? Now, obviously this isn't going to happen with everything that involves pain; but stretching is pretty important." Ray says, "Your wings are next." he finishes while simultaneously releasing them with Kara. The two watch their relatives rotate their arms around to explore this new freedom.

"_Ow,"_ Josh grunts, getting Lucy to giggle. Ray glances around the garden before spotting a large forked branch.

_'Alright, that'll do'_ He thinks before jumping off his nephew and turning back into a Latios. He flies over to the forked branch and examines it; it wasn't perfect, but after slicing away a large nub on one of the prongs, it'll do. He makes a quick whistle to get the attention of the others. _"Fly on over here."_

Lucy and Josh fly over while Kara runs over before leaping onto a nearby branch.

"_This is what you two will be doing next. Watch me first."_ Ray tucks his arms in before flipping himself to look straight up at the sky. After nestling himself into the crook of the branch he starts to relax and stops levitating. Slowly the large Latios begins to sink down, his wings bending forward so much that they almost touch his neck. After staying that way for a few seconds, he sighs before adding, _"You two will be doing the same, stop levitating and stretch your wings out like this. I also want you to do it belly-down and belly-up too. Don't do it upside down, you'll get dizzy and fall."_

The younger dragons snicker a little while Ray levitates out of the branch and looks at the younger dragons. _"Well?"_ he asks, waiting for a volunteer. Lucy shyly flies over while tucking in her arms then lays back on the forked branch. She slowly starts to let herself fall towards the ground, but was having a little trouble; this one hurt a lot more than the arms.

"_Slowly, not too fast. Your wings are really important, so be careful; its alright to stop if you feel something move in a direction its not supposed to."_ Ray warns. _"The more you stretch your wings, the better of a flier you'll be."_

Lucy clenches her teeth and starts levitating again, but just enough to slow the descent a little more.

"_How long does she have to do that?"_ Josh asks, a bit scared of how painful it might feel.

"_Until she gets comfortable, then she flips over. You hear that?"_ Ray asks, looking down at the Latias.

"_Yep!"_

"_Good, we're going to find another branch. Kara, can you watch her?"_ Ray asks as he starts looking for another spot.

Kara gives him that toothy smile again. "Of course." she replies, sitting cross-legged beside her soon-to-be-niece. "Wow...how does it feel to stretch your wings?" Kara asks, looking down at Lucy who is still trying to go all the way.

"_It hurts and feels good at the same time,"_ Lucy replies before finally reaching her goal. She tries reaching her brother with telepathy and succeeds, asking him _"How's it going?"_

"_Ow."_ Josh replies. Lucy giggles.

"_I know, I hope this is the last one..._" Lucy admits. Judging from the weird grunt, Josh probably agrees. Once they flipped over and did the other side, the three dragons met on the stonework near the fountain while Kara remained in the tree, examining the handcuffs for an aura signature.

"_Alright, since you two still look pretty lively, we're going to do more stretches,"_ Ray says, giving the two a toothy grin. His relatives look back in horror.

~!~

"Hello? Anybody home?" A man, about eighteen years of age, walks in with a large cardboard box perched on his shoulder, steadied by one of his hands. He was quite tall and a bit more muscular than the average person, but didn't seem to be easily angered.

"Yes?" Lorenzo asks, stepping out from behind the gondola he was working on. Right behind the man is a large Typhlosion, again bigger than the average, with its fire silently burning on its back. It must've been a considerate pokemon since the fire was kept low; most like to avoid lighting the workshop on fire. He or she looked strong, judging by how easily it was holding another box; this one made of solid metal.

"Yeah, this is a package delivery for Ray." The man smiles. A black cap sat on his head and matched his black vest, under which is a red T-shirt while a pair of white cargo shorts completed his attire.

"I see, and the other one?" Lorenzo looks at the large Typhlosion. It was looking through the workshop at Pikachu, who's sound asleep on the arm of a nice couch.

"Oh, that's for him too." The man replies. The massive pokemon manages to give a small smile at the older man.

"I see, I can take them if you want." Lorenzo replies, holding out his arms.

The man laughs. "Thanks but no thanks, its our job to hand these packages to him ourselves." he smiles, "Besides, we want to see the secret garden."

Lorenzo lowers his arms and laughs "Follow me," he says, leading the two towards the entrance.

~!~

Josh and Lucy were on the soft grass next to the entrance, pooped. Ray was floating over the two, chuckling.

"_Come on, you guys should feel refreshed!"_ Ray laughs. Josh was belly-up while Lucy was belly-down.

"_I do, its just..."_ Josh gasps, _"Thirty minutes of stretching is a bit too much don't you think?"_ he finishes in a groan.

"_I stretched parts of my body I never knew I had,"_ Lucy moans. Ray chuckles again while the three hear a faint giggle coming from a nearby tree; right where Kara was.

"_You guys better get used to it!"_ Ray remarks before landing and turning back into his human form. He sits between the two Latis and asks "Now, if I gave you guys a test on what I talked about and said, would you know the answer?"

Josh raises his head while Lucy cranes hers around. "_Oh..."_ she groans before turning to face him.

"You guys have to pay attention to what I'm saying; some of those things are going to be important later on." Ray instructs, waiting for the Latis to finish floating upright again. "Just raise your paw when you know the answer. Alright, why don't you want to completely turn your neck when looking backward?"

Josh's paw shoots up first, but Lucy came in a close second.

"Josh?"

"_Because if you're flying, the wind resistance would be greater and it would mess up your flight."_ Josh answers.

Ray nods, "Yep. Even if your body is designed to be aerodynamic, something as small as that will affect your flying. Why stretch your wings?" Lucy's paw is up in the blink of an eye.

After he points at her, she answers, _"To help with flying?"_

"How?"

"_It lets you turn and do tricks better!"_ she chirps.

"Correct. Why are those 'feet' there on a Lati body?" Josh raises his hand and Ray points at him.

"_To...uh...waddle?"_ Josh answers, a little unsure. Lucy giggles.

"Yeah. Believe it or not, Latis first learn to waddle, then float, then levitate, then finally fly." Ray smiles, "Why stretch the paws and claws?"

Lucy barely manges to beat Josh's hand. Ray points at her.

"_Because the claws are the second strongest bones that can be used as weapons. The claws are the only natural, physical weapons we have...right?"_

Ray approvingly claps, "Nice!"

"_Wow, you sounded smart there,"_ Josh laughs. Lucy gives him a playful shove.

"What are the tips of the wings for?" Josh raises his hand.

"_To help turn better."_

"Good. The correct term is 'banking', but tomato-tomata." Ray nods, "Last question, why stretch the arms?" Lucy and Josh tie, but Ray picks the Latias.

"_To help you take better care of your back!" _Lucy smiles, getting her uncle to nod.

"Sweet. Since you both tied for correct answers, I'll buy you two chocolate bars later." Ray grins.

Kara snaps out of her work and pokes her head out of the tree, ears perked up and eyes sparkling. "Chocolate?!?" Kara asks, very excited.

Ray quickly turns around and urgently yells, "No! No chocolate for you!"

Kara's eyes narrow while she growls and disappears back into the tree, going back to work.

"_Why can't she have chocolate?"_ Lucy sincerely asks. Ray sighs before turning to her.

"Canines get really sick if they eat chocolate. Last time she had some, she was sick for days," Ray explains, glancing back at the fuming Lucario on the branch. "Unlike most pokemon, us Lati's can eat practically anything and use it for energy, our stomachs can break down and use everything we eat. Which is why we don't have to go 'number two' like most species."

"_What's number two?"_ Lucy innocently asks. Josh flies over and starts whispering in her ear, causing her to blush. "Oh..."

Ray laughs. "Well, that wraps up the stretching. Once we eat lunch, we're going to test your flying next. You guys are free 'till then." Ray says, dismissing his relatives.

"Ray? Teaching? Jeez, you always have words of wisdom up your sleeve, but I never thought you would actually teach." A voice says from the entrance, getting all the heads to turn and see a man with a Typhlosion walk in.

The man waves, watching as Kara leaps down from the branches and speeds over beside Ray. "Words of wisdom? Come on, that sounds so lame!" Ray complains as he stands up.

Josh and Lucy uneasily look at the visitors, especially since they weren't disguised right now.

"Guys, meet Lloyd Vin. Great buddy of mine," Ray smiles, walking over and clasping Lloyd's waiting hand. They shook and turned towards the rest.

"What's up Kara?" Lloyd laughs, "You look a little pissed there."

"Ray won't give me chocolate..." she pouts. Lloyd raises an eyebrow before chuckling.

"Really? Come on Kara, you know better!" The Typhlosion starts chuckling as well.

"Is that Blaze?" Ray looks past Lloyd.

The Typhlosion grins. "The one and only," he says in a low, strong, grumbling voice, shocking Josh and Lucy.

"_He can talk too?!?"_ Josh asks in surprise, pointing at the fiery behemoth.

"Yep, and you can talk when you're a pokemon, thanks to the machines in this box." Lloyd sets the cardboard box down. Josh and Lucy curiously look at the fresh cardboard box.

"They're not ready just yet," Ray adds, tapping the box with his foot.

Lloyd shrugs. "Suit yourself," he gives a toothy grin.

"_What about the other box?" _Lucy shyly asks Lloyd, turning everyone's attention to the metal box in Blaze's hands.

"This is for Ray and Kara only." he says while handing the box to Kara, she almost drops it; surprised at how heavy it was.

"What's in this thing?" Kara asks, looking up at the Typhlosion. He gives her a look that says, 'ask Ray'.

"Alright, package delivered. Your furniture is here too." Lloyd says, getting Ray and Kara to brighten.

"Really?" Kara asks, Blaze nods. "Thanks guys! You're the greatest!" Kara exclaims, setting the metal box beside its cardboard buddy.

"There is a bed though, right?" she asks, a bit slyly. Blaze blushes while Lloyd scoffs.

"Yeah, two small personal LANCE standard-issue beds," Lloyd smirks. Kara looks horrified, but Ray laughs before hugging her from behind.

"Stop scaring her Lloyd," Ray said, gently holding her a little tighter.

Lloyd laughs while brushing off his cap, revealing the dark-blue hair that was a bit shorter than Ray's. "Don't worry, we have a nice king-sized bed for you two. Now, you needed us for something else?" Lloyd asks as Blaze takes a couple step forward.

Ray and Kara give each other a serious look before separating. "Yeah. Josh, Lucy, go practice your flying until lunch," Ray says, turning to his nephew and niece. The nodded before turning invisible and flying away, leaving a small gust of wind in their wake. Once the two are gone, Ray turns back to his friends.

"You've heard about FUZE right?" Ray asks, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Of course, they just showed up here in Altomare." Lloyd replies while Blaze takes a few steps closer, eager to hear more.

"Something's a bit fishy about them," Kara says, idly passing the handcuffs around in her paws.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asks, bending down to get a better look at the cuffs.

"The mayor suddenly ordered a wipeout of all gang members, and FUZE just happened to be there when he did. The gangs in the east have already been flushed out, and the gangs in the west are getting picked off by the FUZE members." Ray says, crossing his arms and training his golden eyes into Lloyd's charcoal gray ones.

"I don't think the officials really care about the FUZE members, and all the law enforcement and judicial powers in Altomare just shifted authority to a foreign corporation that no-one has heard of." Kara adds, crossing her arms as well.

Blaze and Lloyd quickly get a suspicious look. "What does FUZE even do?" Lloyd asks. The Latios and Lucario shrug.

"Nothing's been announced, and they're all in hoodies and using their own manpower instead of pokemon," Ray answers.

"You're kidding," Lloyd states, furrowing his brow.

"No, I'm not. These guys are really suspicious, yet the officials trust them. It just doesn't logically make sense." Ray says.

"The ambassador from FUZE is human though," Kara adds. She motions to her handcuffs, "These were on a gangster that almost drowned from a FUZE arresting and got picked by an associate of his. The faint aura signatures are traceable, but they only show innocence in what happened to them earlier."

"I took a look into their heads too. Even though one of them has a handgun, the only major crime they've done so far is graffiti, hit on some girls, and arms dealing; they aren't even top notch." Ray scoffs, "Looks like FUZE is smart enough to knock out the top dogs first."

"Jeez, another crazed terrorist group probably," Lloyd put a hand to his face. He sighs before looking back at them. "I'll tell chief and everything, Altomare is in your hands for now. I've got-" Lloyd stops and fakes retching, "paperwork to do."

He turns to the Typhlosion. "I'll let Blaze stay here after moving your stuff if you want," Lloyd suggests. Blaze gives Ray and Kara a confident smile. Ray's serious expression changes into a smirk.

"We could always use some firepower," Ray says while Kara gives Blaze her a smile with her canines. Blaze does the same, only his canines are about three times bigger than hers.

"More time to spend with your pokemon buddies, eh?" Lloyd smirks.

Blaze chuckles, "Oh yeah. You better get done quickly or else you might miss the fireworks. And I'm not gonna be around to burn up your junk mail for now!" Lloyd and Blaze share a deep laugh before pounding their fists together. Lloyd goes to rubbing his hands while Blaze cracks his knuckles.

"Alright, let's get your stuff moved in!"

~!~

"_Dang, these tips really do help!" _Lucy exclaims, shedding her invisibility as she and her brother fly away from Altomare. The two are flying side-by-side a few feet over the water, the waves behind them shooting up into the sky.

"_Guess Uncle Ray really knows how to do it!"_ Josh replies. He banks to the right and starts flying higher. _"My lead!"_

Lucy giggles while following him. The two kept going higher and higher before shooting into the clouds; contorting the fluffy matter into unrecognizable shapes behind them. They rose higher and higher before finally exploding out of the clouds and into the bright blue sky and beating sun.

The Latis rolled a few times before starting to fly over the clouds like they were still over the ocean. They flew straight for a while before splitting apart; Josh going right and Lucy to the left.

As they banked; the two let their wings cut into the clouds and leave a visible line following their path. The two begin to perform long drawn-out banks, timing so when their paths crossed, Josh would go by just before Lucy. After overlapping a few times, the two began to lift up into the sky; stopping to levitate about twenty feet above their cloud.

The two turn around a smile at the double helix carved into the white matter. _"My turn!"_ Lucy laughs before speeding downward and plunging head-first into the cloud. Josh chuckles to himself while following her. The two explode out the bottom of the cloud and keep on going; eventually plunging deep into the water and scattering a school of Magikarp.

The two can't swim as fast as they can fly, but the water was a bit more fun to move through; the way the sun shimmered above the surface and the large schools of aquatic pokemon made it amazing. The two swim around, playing chase with some of the aquatic pokemon and darting around the rock formations.

Enough is enough and the two rocket back upwards; bursting out of the water and cooing at the feeling of wind in their fur. Thanks to the design of their body, Latis don't have to worry about pressure or gravitational forces as much as a human does.

What they aren't immune to however, is tiredness. Both slow down to gently float just under a cloud as they breathe heavily, happier than Clamperl. "Whoo!" Josh exclaims. Lucy just starts laughing, barrel rolling next to her brother to shake away the rest of the water.

"That was fun!" Lucy exclaims, not even bothering to talk telepathically as the two start floating back towards Altomare. Josh gives Lucy a smirk before stopping; prompting her to look back at him.

"Big brother?"

"Race you to Altomare!" Josh smirks.

Lucy gives him a playful smile. "Firstonetothegradenwins!" Lucy yells before taking off, hoping the slur of words would confuse him.

It doesn't work, Josh only laughs before taking off as well. _"Try to trick me huh?!"_ Josh playfully asks through the roaring winds. Lucy only giggles, she was in the lead.

Josh however, pulls a trick out of his sleeve. He starts dropping, letting gravity speed him up even more. Lucy manages a glimpse at Josh as he shoots by below her.

"_No fair!"_ she pouts before copying him. Lucy, being a bit smaller, didn't have to worry about wind resistance as much as Josh does, but since he's bigger he has more power to spare. In short; the two are evenly matched as they fight for first place.

"_I'm going to eat your chocolate!"_ Josh threatens, pulling ahead a little. Lucy tries her hardest to pass him.

"_No you're not! I'm going to eat YOURS!"_ She declares, pulling ahead of Josh by an inch. A second later, Josh is beating Lucy by an inch, then Lucy is beating Josh again. They keep swapping places until they realize that Altomare is now behind them.

"_I won!"_ Josh exclaims, banking hard to the left.

"_No, I did!"_ Lucy corrects, banking just as hard to the right. They both turn invisible while shooting downward towards the garden. They manage to stop short of hitting the ground, but the gusts of wind they created drive the wind instruments into a psychotic frenzy.

"_Draw!"_

~!~

"Alright, the furniture should still be outside your apartment building." Lloyd says, leading Ray, Kara, and Blaze around a corner.

"You just left it unguarded?" Ray asks in surprise.

"Nah, I got a couple guys who owe me a favor to watch them." Lloyd replies. "And with them on guard duty, I doubt anyone would try taking your stuff."

"Unless they're crazy." Blaze remarks, completely unfazed by the metal box on his back.

The four come out in front of the seaside apartment building to find a small pile of furniture sitting outside and two Machoke standing guard over it. Well, one was standing guard, the other was napping on the couch.

The awake Machoke notices Lloyd's return and quickly elbows his sleeping buddy.

"Hu-huh? What?" the second one grumbles, sitting up.

"You two weren't sleeping on the job, were you?" Lloyd asks as his group stops in front of them.

"Not at the same time." The first Machoke replies, then glances behind Lloyd to see the others. "Oh, hey! Ray! Kara! Long time no see!"

"Nice to see you too Mid. Iro." Ray replies. "Jeez, when did we last see ya?"

"Wasn't it that trouble in the Orre region?" Kara asks.

"I think so. That was like, what, a year ago?" Mid, the one who wasn't sleeping, asks. He could be distinguished from his literal twin brother because he has a green bandanna tied around his head, while Iro has a yellow band on both arms.

"Lets catch up later, now we should move this stuff." Iro replies, climbing off the couch. "Leave the heavy stuff to us."

"Couldn't agree more." Ray replies, "I've got the chair."

"You lead the way to the apartment, I'll take the chair." Lloyd corrects, "You're the one with the key."

"Isn't there anything I can take?"

"I spy a plant." Blaze says.

Ray shrugs before plucking up the small plant, then leading the group into the building; followed by Kara with the cardboard box, Blaze with the metal box, Lloyd with the chair, and Mid and Iro with the couch.

"Hey!" the landlord yells, noticing the train of movers marching through, "What are you doing?"

"Just moving our stuff in." Ray replies, "Don't worry, the rest of them are only here to help."

He looks suspicious, but unwilling to cause a scene. "Fine...just don't break anything." the man grumbles.

The bizarre convoy heads up the stairs, all the way to the fifth floor. Ray quickly unlocks the door and leaves it open for the rest of his train.

"Nice place Ray." Lloyd comments, making way for the Machoke brothers.

"Thanks," Ray replies, putting the plant on the counter between living room and kitchen. "Just set the stuff anywhere, we can move it when its all done."

"Alright." one of the two Machoke grunt while putting the couch down against the wall.

The group of six head back downstairs and round up some more furniture; this time a few end-tables, a couple more chairs, and the large TV. Once the newest wave of furniture got moved up, the group turns to go back down when they see a weird sight; one of the smaller boxes had followed them up the stairs thanks to a Pikachu.

"Where'd this guy come from?" Mid asks, looking down at the small mouse.

"Hey, that's the Pikachu that was staying with Lorenzo and Bianca." Ray remarks as Kara goes over to the small mouse. "I thought he was sick."

"He doesn't look sick." Lloyd remarks.

"Pikachu..." Kara softly coos while lifting up the mouse, "What're you doing here?"

"I felt better, so I wanted to help. To say thanks." He replies in poke'tongue.

"You didn't need to do that, besides, most of this stuff is too heavy for you."

"I can get the little stuff." He insists.

Kara sighs, "If he's as stubborn as I heard, Pikachu's here to stay."

"Alright, but be careful." Ray warns. "I don't want my nephew and niece mad at me because you got hurt."

"I will be!" he replies before squirming out of Kara's arms and bounding back downstairs.

"You sure he was sick?" Iro asks.

"He was." Ray shrugs before following after the small mouse.

On the way down, Pikachu goes by with a second plant. "Well, he's saving us trips at least." Ray admits.

Just as the group gets back outside, a faint ringing is heard. Lloyd quickly reaches into his pocket and pulls out a Lance communicator. The device, despite its name, is more like a personal messaging system; able to send small text messages between users for easy communications.

After reading the new message, Lloyd turns to the Machoke brothers. "Sorry guys, HQ wants you back."

"Alright, at least let us carry the bed up." Mid replies.

"Will it even fit around the corners of the stairway?" Iro asks.

"Sure it will, its got a one of those fancy, flex-frame thingys. Its strong enough to hold the bed together, but easily flexes to get around corners." Mid replies. "Doesn't make any less bulky though."

"Alright, alright, hold your Ponyta." Iro grumbles getting the hint and marching over to grab one side of the bed while his twin grabs the other. "You guys go ahead of us, we'll probably cause a traffic jam."

"Good idea, I think the rest of the bed is in those boxes." Lloyd says, gesturing to another large cardboard box.

"I got it, who'll get the wardrobe?" Ray asks, easily lifting up the box and plopping it on his shoulder.

"I'll get it." Kara says, "I'm the only one of us who'll actually use it."

Lloyd and Blaze give her an impressed look as Kara rests her back against the wardrobe, grabs it, then leans forward; easily holding up the whole thing.

"Remind me to never piss her off." Blaze whispers to Lloyd.

"Same here." Lloyd replies before gesturing to a couple lamps. The Typhlosion nods before grabbing them and following his fellow pokemon inside. Lloyd grabs a taller pole-lamp before following the fire-type and getting followed by the two Machoke.

The four easily reach and unload their cargo in the room, but it takes Mid and Iro a whole two minutes to work their way up the stairs and into the bedroom. "Can you guys assemble this thing without us?" Mid asks.

"Sure, go on. You two have work to do." Ray replies.

The two Machoke nod before hurrying out. Leaving their friends with just a handful of smaller items. Pikachu has already brought up the last two plants, and quickly trots by the descending Lance members with another box in his hands.

The small mouse reaches the room and sets the box down beside its companions, then sighs. Everything left was too big for him to lift, and he doesn't know where to put anything that has already been brought up.

"Guess my part of the work is done." Pikachu mutters, climbing into one of the chairs. He glances around the apartment and feels a little impressed by Ray and Kara's find. Such nice folks...his thoughts wander to imagining the expressions of Bianca and the others when they see this place.

His little chocolate colored eyes eventually settle on the balcony, where a few Pidgey are standing; resting their wings. He smirks when he sees the birds, then sighs as the memories of his first day with Ash flood back...

"Ash...please be okay..." Pikachu sadly mutters, his ears drooping down. Before his thoughts could get too gloomy, he hears the squawking of Pidgey and looks to see them flying away in surprise; just before some weird form lands on the railing then leaps away in a blur.

Surprised and curious, Pikachu hurries over and wiggles through the slightly ajar door, then hops up on the railing for a better view. Whatever that thing was, it was already three buildings away. All the mouse can see is a black form leap between two buildings before it gets out of sight.

"What the hell was that?" Pikachu asks aloud, tilting his head to one side.

"What was what?" asks Ray's voice, getting the mouse to turn. The disguised-Latios steps out onto the balcony and looks at the electric mouse, awaiting an answer.

"I dunno, I saw something land here, then jump away. By the time I got out here, it was already out of sight."

"You sure it wasn't just a bird?"

Pikachu looks down at the balcony floor...there was no way this thing was a bird, but what was he supposed to say? "No Ray, I just saw a shadow leaping between buildings!"?

"I-I don't know...maybe I was just seeing things." Pikachu grumbles before hopping down and going back inside, Ray following behind.

All of the furniture that was in a pile outside is now (more or less) haphazardly scattered around the apartment...but at least its inside now.

"That's all of it." Lloyd says, brushing his hands and smirking. "You two sure you can handle sorting everything?"

"We'll be fine Lloyd, don't you have..." Kara trails off, waiting for him to get the hint.

"Alright, go ahead...leave me with the paperwork." Lloyd grumbles before leaving.

"I think we still got a little time before lunch, care to get started?" Ray asks.

"I at least want the bed ready." Kara slyly purrs, getting both Blaze and Pikachu to blush and glance away.

Ray just laughs, "Alright, I'll help. Blaze? You want to get the TV?"

"Sure." The Typhlosion shrugs while Ray and Kara disappear into the bedroom. "Hey, little guy, you want to hold onto the cord?" he asks, turning his attention to the mouse.

Pikachu shrugs before hurrying over and grabbing hold of the TV's power cable, keeping out of the larger pokemon's way as it gets moved to a small cabinet that is sitting by a power socket. That out of the way, Blaze leaves Pikachu to plugging the electronic in to move the couch into place in front of it.

The pieces of furniture get moved into place one-by-one, Pikachu managing the smaller pieces and helping out Blaze whenever need be. In no more than ten minutes, all of the furniture is in place and the two pokemon stand by to admire their work. In the living room, next to the buffet window is a large table with six chairs; more than enough to handle Ray's family.

Occupying the other half of the room is the couch, pushed up against the wall separating living from bedroom. One chair sits on both sides of the couch and are angled towards the TV on the opposite side of the room. Nestled into the arc created by these four sitting areas is the coffee table and a pole lamp is sitting between the couch and the chair to its right.

The last thing occupying the living room (apart from the clock and a calendar the two found in one of the boxes) is a large wooden desk that is sitting opposite the hallway. Nothing is on the desk right now, but once Ray and Kara open up the rest of the boxes, something is sure to turn up; Pikachu and Blaze didn't want to because, well...its their stuff, it wasn't right to root through it.

"You're not that bad little guy." Blaze admits, looking around.

"Just call me Pikachu." He replies.

"Little boring calling you by species name...how about I call you Sparks."

"Suit yourself."

"Wow guys," Ray says, coming out of the bedroom with Kara right behind. "This place looks great."

"Thanks." Pikachu and Blaze reply. "All that's left is your...personal stuff." Blaze adds.

"That'll take two minutes." Ray replies, waving it aside.

Kara gasps as she checks the clock. "Its almost lunchtime!" she exclaims. The stomachs of the other three angrily growl in response.

"Last one back to the garden is a Grimer!" Blaze yells, before shooting out the open door; Pikachu hot on his heels. Somehow the mammoth pokemon missed all of the furniture in his way.

"Sometimes I wonder what's more powerful; Blaze's fire, or his stomach." Ray grumbles, but his only response is Kara's laughter as she runs out as well. He sweat-drops before hurrying after her, only stopping to lock the door.

~!~

The gang has gathered back in the garden, all in a tree eating at the subs that Bianca brought home from the cafe' she works at. Well, Pikachu didn't want to risk getting sick again, so he's inside munching away at fruit. Even Blaze had managed to climb up, and had found a sturdy enough branch to sit on; his flames were kept out for the tree's safety.

The Typhlosion paws at his meatball sandwich a little before eating it in one gulp.

"Mmm...saucy." Blaze smiles before leaning backwards to relax. Josh and Lucy were having an eating contest on the branches next to the Typhlosion, trying to see who could finish their sub the fastest.

"_I'm gonna win!"_ Josh somehow exclaims despite practically shoving the sub down his face.

"_I'm going to eat mine first!"_ Lucy counters, before starting to wolf down her sandwich. Bianca glares at the two.

"Jeez, you guys haven't learned a thing!" Bianca scolds before starting on her own sub in a more civilized manner."

"_Thank you for the subs!" _The siblings yell out telepathically, already finished. Bianca face-palms with one hand while holding her sandwich in the other.

Kara and Ray look at their niece and nephew in amusement while quietly eating their own sandwiches.

"_Yeah thanks Bianca, these are really good."_ Ray says from his perch above his relatives. He's in his pokemon form right now and his wings are stretched out; Kara's comfortably nested into his right wing's fur.

"Thanks Bianca," Kara adds, taking another bite of her sub, "Too bad Lloyd had to leave right away."

"His loss," Blaze chuckles before licking his fingers clean of the sauce. "That had to be one of the best subs I've ever had. My props to whoever cooks this."

Bianca smiles. "I know how to make them now, its not that hard." She admits, turning to face the large pokemon.

"Sweet," Ray smiles before taking another bite. By now, the siblings are fighting over who won. "Told you she works at a good cafe'."

"Never doubted you for a second," Blaze grins, "By the way, I think the contest is a draw." he adds, glancing over at the siblings.

The two stopped fighting to glare at each other.

"_I'll eat yours someday."_ Josh warns, pointing a claw at his sister.

"_I'll eat yours anyday."_ Lucy replies, sticking her tongue out.

Ray and Kara simultaneously finish their subs just before Bianca.

"Alright, Josh and Lucy, you guys have about forty five minutes or so before we start training again. We have to settle something." Ray says as Kara leaps down to the ground, landing silently. Blaze hops down as well, but lands with loud boom instead.

Ray takes flight out of the tree and turns invisible. Kara and Blaze follow after their invisible friend, with Blaze bellowing "Catch you guys later!" as they disappear out one of the exits.

Bianca sighs and looks back at the siblings, finding that they've gone back to arguing. She sweat-drops before silently climbing out of the tree and going to check on Pikachu; leaving Josh and Lucy to their bickering.

~!~

"_Lloyd, we're probably going to need you near the bridge on the west side of Altomare. You know the rally point right?"_ Ray asks, flying overhead as a camouflaged pokemon. He looks down below and sees a large boat lazily drifting through the canals.

"_Yup, but you owe me one. I've got a mountain of paperwork back at base."_

Ray silently laughs to himself before flying away. He lands on a building and transforms back into a human, walking up next to his partner. "Do you see him?" he asks while pulling a pair of fingerless gloves from the pocket of his bullet-proof vest. He got it from the metal box Blaze had, along with some other tools. Everything he's wearing, from his T-shirt to his cargo pants, are black except for the golden insignia on his left shoulder.

Kara doesn't so much as twitch when Ray spoke. "I think so. Its a little hard to tell since there are so many others nearby...guess they're all gathered together." she replies, keeping her eyes shut.

"You hear that Blaze?" Ray asks to the air, making sure the small ear-piece was working.

"_Hah, looks like I'm going with Lloyd after all. I hear you loud and clear, just tell me where."_ Blaze's deep rumbly voice replies from the ear-piece The fire-type is down in the alley beside the building, blowing smoke from his mouth to pass the time.

Ray smirks before bounding down two stories to the Typhlosion, then closes his eyes and activates sightsharing between him and Kara, making sure to include Blaze as well. A large blob composed of a patchwork of colors appears in front of them; the view of Kara's aura sight.

"You see where they are?" Kara asks.

Ray nods, "Area confirmed. Follow my lead." He flashes back into his pokemon form and lowers himself so Blaze can get on. Using his Psychic energy, Ray manages to make the heavy pokemon a little bit lighter so his back doesn't break.

The Latios turns himself and his passenger invisible before floating back up to Kara's level. "_You guys ready for this?"_ Ray asks. Kara gets an Extremespeed ready while Blaze tightens his hold on Ray, making sure not to strangle him.

"Let's go!" Kara exclaims, rocketing off the roof; Ray lagging mere inches behind her. Kara easily bounds from rooftop to rooftop, making only soft thumps with each landing. Ray is causing so much of a slipstream that loose shingles are blown away as he goes by.

Once the two get close to their target, the three duck down into a darkened alley that leads to a large metal warehouse door; their quarry is waiting on the other side.

Blaze hops off Ray's back to allow the Latios to change back into a human. While the three quietly walk up to the door, Ray pulls out a black handgun and his golden dagger; locking his wrists together so the weapons are pointing in the same direction and the dagger is just underneath the gun.

"Breaching positions, I'll take point," Ray whispers, hugging the wall next to the door. Kara presses her back to the wall as well, but is waiting beside the door. Blaze occupies the area on the other side of the door, readying a Flamethrower.

"5...4..." Kara starts counting down, readying a Force Palm, "3...2..." She holds her hand out in front of the door, ready to blow it open. "1...GO!"

She slams her hand into the door and sends it flying away with a boom; cracking the walls around it and filling the room with dust and debris. Ray and Blaze burst in through the door with Kara following after forming an Aura Sphere.

"Freeze! Lance Syndicate!" Ray orders, Blaze shooting a quick burst of flames from his back to help send a message.

Coughing could be heard inside, but the shouting of men was a lot clearer. The dust settles to reveal a group of gang members with shotguns, handguns, and sub-machine guns aimed at the open doorway. In addition to the armed humans, a pack of Houndour are present as well; along with a Houndoom standing next to who looks like the leader. All of the dark dogs have a flame-thrower ready; aiming mostly for Kara.

Ray quickly makes a battle assessment; they may have been outgunned and outnumbered, but not outmatched. Lance prepared them for this.

"Its you!" Someone yells.

"I knew it," the leader growls. He has jet black hair, a black jacket, and black eyes...actually, all of the gang members are garbed in black save a handful over on the right-hand side. "You were trying to get us busted this whole time!" He points one of his pistols at the smaller gang, who were armed as well. They didn't have any pokemon, but an arsenal of larger weapons. The one thing that stands out about the smaller gang is that they all looked young; none of them seemed older than fifteen.

"What the hell are you talking about? I don't even know what Lance means!" One of the gang members, DJ, yells back. He has a shotgun pointed at the other leader and JT is at his side with a pistol and a sub-machine gun aimed at the same target.

"Once we get rid of this AA shit, you're next!" The other leader yells.

"We're not the Altomarian Authorities!" Kara retorts. None of the gangsters seemed fazed that she could speak english.

"Tauros-shit! Houndoom attack!" The leader orders, prompting his Houndoom (and somehow the Houndour) into launching a Flamethrower. Kara counters by throwing forward her Aura Sphere, causing an explosion when the attacks collide.

The gang members were blasting away, but once the smokescreen fills the room they stop; hoping to save their ammo. The Houndour and Houndoom start sniffing at the air, hoping to find the enemy, but can only smell smoke.

"Since they're done," The leader growls, turning and pointing his guns towards DJ. "You're next!"

Two loud clangs ring out as his pistols go flying away, a dent in both barrels as a result of bullet hits. They all turn back to the entrance only to see a torrent of fire explode out of the smoke cloud; at least twice size of their combined Flamethrowers. The ruffians and their pokemon scatter to get out of the way, they all try attacking the source; but the sheer heat of the attack renders everything useless.

"Shit!" JT grunts, gasping for air. The fire is eating up all of the oxygen and suffocating the group inside. The leader of the darker gang hurries over to a door and kicks it open; leading the others deeper into the warehouse. The two gangs quickly move past dusty machinery and old crates until they find another exit.

"There!" one of them yells, just before the door slams shuts; leaving the room to only be lit by the burning fire behind them.

"Dammit, what now?" Another one asks.

"Wait!" JT orders, putting up a hand to silence the group. The shadowy dogs start sniffing around, looking around between the catwalks, ceiling, and lights. They let out a confused whine, like they're trying to find some target that slipped away.

"There!" DJ yells, blasting at a shadow that rushed by.

"What the hell is this?!" A third member yells, then hears one of the lights creak. He blasts it with his shotgun and makes it explode into metal and glass debris.

Suddenly one member falls over, groaning from some weird injury. A second one falls, then a third, then a fourth.

The leader of the dark gang growls before looking at his Houndoom. "Light this place up!" The large canine barks to its pre-evolutions before raising its head up and spitting out a small fountain of fire; not enough to cause any trouble, but enough to act as a good light source. The smaller dogs do the same, lighting up the surrounding area to a comfortable level.

"I should just shoot your ass right now!" The leader growls at DJ.

DJ scoffs. "That's not gonna help at all, is it?"

Right after he asks that, a figure leaps off a stack of nearby crates and lunges straight for the middle of the group. It slams a paw into the ground and causes a small tremor, but one strong enough to send the gangsters toppling over. Most of them slam their heads hard enough to knock them out, but a few, like DJ, JT, and the other leader, lucked out.

"Jeez, how do we fight something like that?!" JT asks.

"You don't." A voice calmly says. Those who are still up turn to the voice and try firing their weapons, but get even more frightened when the weapons make hollow clicking noises.

"Just give up and make it easy for yourself." The voice adds. A weird wind rushes through the room before the gangster find their hands in handcuffs. "Besides, we're not trying to kill you like FUZE Corp is."

They look towards the voice to see Ray stepping out of the shadows and glaring down at them. He slides his gun back into its holster, but keeps his dagger out.

"What the hell are you?" DJ snarls.

"If I told you, _then_ I would have to kill you." Ray says, giving them an evil smirk. They look around to see Kara dragging the unconscious gangsters into a pile, the Houndoom and Houndour gathered together and muzzled, and the fire dieing down as the Typhlosion comes stomping in.

"Ahh!" He sighs, "It's awesome to use my back again!"

_'The Typhlosion's back?!?' _JT thinks, his mind racing. _'I can't do anything, he's watching me...how did he...?'_

"Come on, you can't mess with a Typhlosion's back," Ray smiles, easily reading his thoughts. JT clenches his teeth.

"What now? You guys aren't with the fuzz," DJ asks, giving up when Kara piles all the weapons together and far out of reach.

"I dunno. If you guys cooperate, I think you can work for us," Ray calmly states. Kara and Blaze give him a questioning look, but he returns it with a 'trust me' look.

"Why the hell would Hell's Houndours work for you?!?" The leader barks.

"Trust me, it's not like you're all going the same way those other gangs did. You do want to get rid of FUZE, right? If you help me, you'll get those guys off the streets." Ray replies, giving the leader an equal glare.

"Same to you." Ray says as he turns to DJ, "Help us, and you guys will be under LANCE's protection...at least until this whole FUZE ordeal is over with."

_'LANCE...'_ JT thought, where did he hear that name before?

"Trust me. Not like you've really got a choice." Ray adds.

Kara suddenly gasps before closing her eyes, letting her long hair spread outward. "FUZE is coming, we've got two minutes at max. Ray, we gotta get out of here now."

Blaze shifts around uncomfortably while Ray curses under his breath. As much as he hated to admit, those guys were good.

"Choice is yours, go with the fuzz, or come with us." Ray states, looking at the nervous gang members.

DJ sighs and gives in. "I'll come, my whole gang and I." he says, throwing himself upright. He sincerely looks at Ray and adds, "Just help us..." After giving the rest of his members a quick mental check and finding them to be willing to go as well, he nods.

"Get up and follow me. Don't even try escaping, you'll just get picked off by FUZE." The rest of DJ's gang nods before throwing themselves upright as well.

The Houndour start whining at Kara, begging to be let go. As much as her heart wanted to help them, she had to wait for Ray's call.

"Boss, what now?" One of the HH members asks in a panic.

"We're going to face those FUZE bastards like men!" He shouts, sparking an argument between the gang members. This only upsets the Houndour even more and gets them to start whimpering harder.

Ray notices this and trains his eyes on the HH gang. "You've picked your fate, but your pokemon go free. They don't deserve to suffer for the things you made them do." he growls, after looking into their memories and seeing the abuse the small hounds got. Ray turns to Kara and nods, saying its okay to let them go.

"This guy however." Ray says, looking down at the Houndoom. "You're just as bad as they are. You get to stay with them." The Houndoom growls at Ray, but he knew better; this one bullied the others just as much as the humans did.

"Let's go," Ray says, leading DJ's crew toward the entrance they barged in from.

"Come on buddy, don't you want to stay and help me?" One of the HH members asks a Houndour.

"Yea, I knew you since you were little! Don't you remember?!?" Another asks.

The dark dogs growl at them as they walk by and grab one of the weapons from the pile, then keep following Ray; all twenty or so of them. The only weapons left behind were just a couple empty pistols.

As the large group moves outside, Blaze turns to the Houndour and barks something to them in poke'tongue. The dogs nod before hurrying ahead and breaking up into groups of four or five each; all scattering down other alleys.

"How did you-" DJ is cut off when Ray yells, "No time for questions, we have to move now!" and breaks out into a run, Kara just behind him, then Blaze on all fours. DJ and his gang aren't far behind.

The weird group only passes into the lit street occasionally as they dart from alley to alley; luckily DJ's crew only added about ten or so members, so it isn't unmanageable.

As they run down an alley separated from a canal by a building, they hear the distinctive noise of motorboats roaring by.

"Jesus Christ, they're already here!" one of them yells.

"Keep running!" Kara barks.

"Lloyd!" Ray yells, pressing a button on his communicator. "We're coming over with at least a dozen mobiles! Get ready for evac!"

"_Seriously? Some Houndour just hopped in not thirty seconds ago! There should be enough room for them though! I'm waiting in the next canal you're coming too, but hurry! There's a shit-load of FUZE boats everywhere!"_ Lloyd yells back.

Just like he said, up ahead was a canal and Ray could sense Lloyd's thoughts coming from down inside it. "Listen up! I want all of you to jump off the ledge at full speed! Don't worry, just jump!" Ray yells back, watching as Kara and Blaze speed up. The two pokemon hurl themselves off the edge.

"What are you damn crazy?!? The water's too shallow!" One member yells. He would've stopped, but the buzzing of another FUZE engine from a canal behind them changed his mind.

"Trust me!" Ray shouts before leaping off as well.

"Ah shit!" JT yells before throwing himself off the edge; followed closely by DJ and the rest of the gang.

A purple FUZE boat goes by on a nearby canal and one of the hooded passengers turns to see a boat floating there with two clearly non-gangster teenagers on-board. What he didn't notice however, was that in the floor of the boat was a sliding door that gave access to the cargo hold and it just closed.

Ray and Lloyd watch the FUZE boat speed away and heave a big sigh. "I don't think we've ever cut anything so close before." Ray grumbles, watching his friend as he goes over to the control console and turns on the engine.

"I'm serious Ray, you owe me." Lloyd says, steering the boat down the canal before going in the opposite direction FUZE went. "Ten percent of my paperwork-load _and_ a sundae when this blows over."

"Fine whatever." Ray says, waving away Lloyd's request, "But thanks.

"Anytime bud. Next stop, Temporary LANCE base."

~!~

"What the hell? I can't see a thing," DJ says, a bit scared of what he might find. He was rubbing a sore spot on his leg that the metal floor of wherever he was.

"Me neither, this better not be a trick!" One member yells. Right as he finishes, the dim lighting clicks on; one light in the ceiling and a few lines of glow-rope encircling the walls.

The space that they are in is the interior of a large boat; but was still pretty cramped. None of them could stand up and as they looked around all they could see was one or two small crates accompanying them.

"Jeez, this better not take us to the fuzz." JT grit his teeth while backing up, accidentally stepping on something soft the growled at him. He quickly moves forward and turns around to see a small pack of Houndour

The dogs were lying down, paws on top of whatever weapon they stole from their gang back at the warehouse. The pokemon give the humans a warning growl until they gather in the opposite corner of the boat. JT was about to reach for the pistol he kept stashed under his shirt when a crackle comes out of nowhere.

"_Now, now, let's get along here,"_ a voice says through the intercom speaker that was right next to DJ's ear. The startled teen stands up before thumping his head on the ceiling and falling forwards.

"_Scared? Don't be. You all are going to a temporary LANCE base, so just stay calm and don't do anything stupid. I'm keeping an eye on you."_ The intercom clicks, signaling the end of the transmission.

"Holy shit," JT grumbles to the rest of the gang, "I don't think I've ever been this close to a Houndour before."

"When was the last time I had a pokemon?" One of the members asks aloud, sliding his back down the smooth wall and sitting with his knees together; the others following suit.

"I never had one. I don't think any of us did," DJ sadly admits. The gangsters sat across the area from the Houndour, trying to avoid eye contact. One of the Houndour, however, was watching JT with interest. JT was looking at the same one, watching its dark-red eyes watch him. One of the hounds had a scar on its right ear, but the one that was catching JT's attention was lying next to that one.

"I've always wanted one though," JT mumbles as he moves closer. The others look at him like he's a madman.

"Yo, what are you doing?" DJ hisses. "Get back here!"

JT ignores him and keeps going, eventually sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room. The Houndour that caught his attention gets up and walks towards him as well, the pits and pats of its feet on the floor much louder than that of the boat's engine.

The dog sits in front of JT, staring into his eyes while he stared back. None of the other Houndour or humans dared to move, but kept their eyes fixed on their respective species. Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as the two sat there, almost silently daring one another to move.

The other gang members turn to see the Houndour pack staring back at them. Neither one moved, watching for any sort of hostile attack from the other. It was then that DJ realized that the number of humans and Houndour present were equal; nine to nine. It looks like the others are still out going wherever it was the Typhlosion ordered them to.

"If you get your face bitten off, it's not my fault," DJ says, trying to lighten the mood but nobody else laughed.

Abruptly, the Houndour in front of JT starts growling; getting the human to frown, unsure of what to do.

"_Don't look away, don't be intimidated. It's testing you."_ whispers a voice in JT's head; he recognizes it as Ray's.

"_How are you in my head?"_ JT asks, but still obeys. The Houndour now has a small ball of flame in its mouth.

"_Just keep staring and stay still. If you don't, something bad is going to happen."_

"_What if something bad happens when I stay still?"_ JT asks. He still couldn't help but feel challenged by the hound and leaned closer, giving the pokemon his own silent dare.

"_Then so be it."_

JT smirks, never wavering from the large red eyes of the hound. It finally acted and spat out a fireball that went whizzing by JT's head and into a part of the boat where (luckily) nobody was.

The attack did get the other gangsters to get up and as a response the other Houndour stood up, but one sharp bark from JT's and the dogs sat back down. "Don't move guys, just sit still." JT says, getting his species to calm down.

The Houndour spat out another ball of flame, but aimed this one into the ground between itself and JT. JT tensed, but didn't budge...it actually felt strange having a fire so close, yet not having a single piece of his clothing light up.

The Houndour sets its paw into the flame and waits a few seconds, until its paw was nice and hot.

"_Okay, listen carefully. Put your elbow on your knee, raise the fist, and aim the back of it towards her. Make sure you keep your hand clenched."_ Ray's voice says.

JT does so and watches as the Houndour raises the heated paw towards his fist.

_'Her?'_

"_This is going to hurt."_ Ray warns.

The Houndour presses its paw to the back of JT's hand and applies pressure, steadily burning a paw-print into him. JT bites his lip to keep a hiss from coming out, but it was hard to do due to the pain.

"_Don't move away! You have to hold your ground until she's done! You can endure it too! Just keep looking into her eyes!"_ The voice says, encouraging him.

The other gangster look on in surprise, their jaws hanging open. "Oh my god JT," DJ says under his breath, not even daring to blink.

The burning lasts for about ten seconds before she lowers her paw. JT grunts, not moving his fist; if he did it would hurt more. The Houndour seems to smile at him before lower her head and gently licking his burn. JT hisses at the pain, but sighs as it subsides. Once he seems to be okay, The Houndour gives him a happy bark before going to back its spot and contently lying down on an empty sub-machine gun.

The victor, JT drops his head and starts breathing heavily; then lets his hand and arm start moving again. He turns it around to take a look at the burnt paw print she left behind.

"_Now that's a rare sight,"_ the intercom softly crackles.

"_We can heal you up once we get to the base, but that mark's going to be there forever. Wear it with pride and treat her well; she's putting her trust in you."_ Ray's voice crackles in over Lloyd's. The speaker clicks again before going quiet.

JT didn't go back to his friends, instead going to the wall between them and the Houndour. "The trainer doesn't pick the pokemon, the pokemon picks the trainer." JT announces while showing off his mark.

"God-damn JT, you're crazy!" DJ laughs, "I think our gang needs a new name!"

The scarred Houndour moves into the middle of the room and gives a challenging bark to DJ; who notices that it had gotten off his shotgun.

JT laughs back. "DJ, I think you're next."

~!~

"Well, that was a first," Kara says, smiling to herself. She and Ray had just left the temporary LANCE base a few minutes ago after dropping off DJ's group and the Houndour, who quickly meet up with the other eleven hounds that got there on their own. The Lucario is actually happy for both of the convict species. "I've seen trust pacts formed before, but never like that!"

Ray smiles along with her; content that those twenty-nine souls are safe from whatever FUZE is up to. "You should've seen JT's face when he heard that Houndour was a girl." he laughs.

"Speaking of ladies, Blaze has a girlfriend!" Kara exclaims, quickly catching Ray's attention.

"Seriously?"

"Serious as their relationship level." Kara replies, "Which, I might add, seems pretty high going off his words."

"Well, who is it?" Ray asks, nudging her with his elbow.

"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me," Kara states, pouting a little.

"Ten bucks that it's the Ninetails he's eying," Ray says.

"A chocolate bar it's another Typhlosion!" Kare replies, sticking her tongue out at Ray. The two laugh over the chocolate before quieting down as the fresh air of the garden rolls over them.

"Thank Arceus we didn't have to use the other weapons that were in the box," Kara says, giving an exasperated sigh.

"I know. Besides, the twin guns are for my Latios form anyway." Ray admits. "Alright you guys! Its lesson time!" he shouts to the trees.

Lucy and Josh fly out of the foliage and levitate in front of their uncle and soon-to-be aunt.

"_What took you so long Uncle Ray?"_ Lucy curiously asks.

Ray smiles at her. "I had business to attend to. But since that's over, we can begin our flight testing." Ray says while turning into his Lati form. He quickly turns to Kara and asks, "_You'll need to be on the water, observing their performance. You can do that, right?"_

He finishes in a smirk, challenging her. Kara smirks back and crosses her arms. "Since when did you start doubting me?" she laughs, "Tell me where to go and I'll probably beat you out there."

The four share a relaxing laugh before leaving as a group.

~!~

"_Hey Uncle Ray! Where's Kara?"_ Josh asks, following Ray on the older Latios' right. Lucy is following on her uncle's left. The three are just above the ocean's surface, far away from Altomare.

"_She's down below the water, watching you guys. Alright, let's begin. Follow my lead!"_ Ray exclaims before rolling to the right, keeping his wings diagonal. He then quickly lifts up in the air before stopping at a reasonable altitude.

"_Kara? Can you still see us?"_ Ray asks as Lucy and Josh come up behind.

"_Yeah, I see you. I can always keep you three in view with Aura-sight if you get away,"_ Kara replies. She is just below the ocean's surface, staying afloat on a bubble of aura-charged water and breathing thanks to a small breath-pack. If she doesn't keep the aura bubble, she'd quickly start sinking due to her skeleton; bones stronger than steel are about as buoyant as the metal is.

"_Don't worry about me. I'll tell you when I start getting tired,"_ Kara smirks, keeping her red eyes trained on the three Latis above her.

"_Perfect."_ Ray replies before turning to his students, "_Alright, what helps you turn faster at high speeds?"_

Lucy and Josh simultaneously reply, "_The wing-tips!"_

"_Okay then, show me. Keep up as best you can."_ Ray says before taking off, Lucy and Josh following shortly after him. Kara, down below, forces her bubble to explode; giving her a bit of a speed boost before using a modified form of Extremespeed to keep pace; channeling a large amount of aura behind to move forward, but keeping a little beneath her to avoid sinking.

Ray quickly barrel-rolls off to the left, then pulls a hard right; turning on the proverbial dime. Lucy and Josh do their best to keep pace, but still fish-tail a little on the turns.

Ray quickly breaks to the right before rolling again then shooting back off to the left. Lucy and Josh are now having hard time keeping up with their uncle's movements.

"_Come on you guys!"_ Ray encourages. Josh and Lucy grit their teeth and try their best to keep up with him and turn as well as he could; but they kept turning either just a little too loosely or just couldn't keep up.

"_Oh man..."_ Josh groans, the tips of his wings start to get tired from the workout.

"_Now the tips are starting to hurt..."_ Lucy grimaces, starting to lag behind.

Ray stops flying and turns around, letting Josh and Lucy stop in front of him.

"_Well?"_ Ray asks Kara.

"_They didn't do that bad at the start...but started lagging behind during the end."_ Kara's voice comments, echoing in the minds of the three. "_They followed you through, mimicking your exact movements. I'd give a B...B-plus."_

"_Alright, not that bad, but you two can do better. Now, what did I not do while I was flying?"_ Ray asks.

"_Look back!" _Lucy chirps.

"_Good. Your homework is to work on turning on the tips of your wings, but for now, here's the next lesson. Stay there and watch closely."_ Ray instructs, speeding away. Josh and Lucy do as they were told; watching their uncle fly away before banking to the left. He made a long enough turn so that he'd soon go by in front of the two, left to right, on his next flyby.

"_Watch and learn!"_

When Ray comes around again, it almost looked like he was slowing down. As he came by he started rotating upwards to aim towards the clouds; simple enough except for one thing. While Ray was facing upwards, his body was still moving parallel to the horizon.

"_What the???_" Josh has his jaw open, watching his uncle seem to defy physics. The older Latios slows down a little more before suddenly rocketing upwards, where his does a quick loop-de-loop and starts descending again; stopping in front of his niece and nephew.

"_How did you do that?!?"_ Lucy asks, bewildered.

"_Alright, this is science time. What I just did is called the 'cobra maneuver' developed by Viktor Pugachev. What I did was stop propelling myself forward and let my own momentum handle the moving while I aimed in another direction. Once I was aimed the right way, I started flying again."_ Ray explains, "_Its just simple inertia when you think about it._

"_If you ever stop flying, and I mean both flight and levitation, you start slowing down but don't drop like a Geodude...at least not right away. If you lose enough speed, then you stall and _then_ you drop like a Geodude. Stalling is when the air-flow beneath your wings isn't strong enough to keep you aloft._

"_The cobra maneuver is for abrupt turning and for quick bursts of altitude; and I comes in handy for getting a Flying-type off your back if need be. Latis are the only pokemon that can do this maneuver, since we're the only species that uses psychic energy to move forward; every other flying type needs to beat their wings like crazy to take off and occasionally to stay aloft. Its a little like a jet engine for planes, except ours doesn't run on fuel. Now, if you master this maneuver..."_

Ray pauses and motions to Lucy. "_Hey, follow me and try to hit me with a Mist Ball when we fly past Josh."_

Josh looks at his uncle like he was nuts.

"_W-what?"_ Lucy stutters.

"_Trust me,"_ Ray smiles, "_Josh, you stay here and watch."_

Lucy nods before following her uncle on the same path as before. Down below, one of Kara's eyebrows has perked up in interest.

"_Alright, once we go by Josh, use Mist Ball!"_ Ray says. Lucy chirps an 'ok,' still nervous.

Right as the two pass Josh, Lucy releases a gray orb, the Mist Ball, towards her uncle. Ray cuts his propulsion and starts tilting backwards, eventually to land on a diagonal that has him looking back the way he came. He then turns his propulsion back on and rockets up into the sky again, dodging the Mist Ball by inches.

Lucy flies back around to her brother while Ray rights himself and descends back to his students.

"_Whoa..."_ Josh says, impressed and excited with the new technique. Lucy was also giggling, amazed at how well Ray could fly.

"_This is homework number two,"_ Ray smiles, "_Try experimenting with propulsion, speed, and stalling; you might get something fun out of it. But for now..."_ Ray stops, motioning for the siblings to com closer.

"It's time to get your chocolate, and don't tell Kara!" he whispers in poke'tongue. Lucy and Josh smile and laugh before following Ray towards the mainland.

Kara curiously watches the three fly away, confused why Ray didn't tell her what was next, but quickly gives chase when she notices a school of Wailord coming towards her.

~!~

"Whew, long day huh?" Ray sighs, speaking in human while laying down on the grass of the garden. Night had fallen a while ago and everybody was headed off for bed. After vigorous flying training, Josh and Lucy were more than willing to fall asleep early. The two are in the branches somewhere, soundly sleeping. Bianca and Lorenzo are probably asleep by now too, as is Blaze; who came wandering back into the garden a few hours ago and is now curled up off by the wall, sleeping peacefully and snoring like a chainsaw. Even Pikachu, who again saw the female Pikachu with a flower in her ear while the others were gone, is fast asleep; probably up in Bianca's room.

Despite it being a fun day, Kara had her arms crossed and was standing next to Ray with a look of disappointment on her face.

"No chocolate..." Kara pouts, sticking her tongue out at Ray. They both laugh.

"You know the consequences," Ray smiles, settling down into the grass and breathing in the crisp air. A breeze rolls over him, getting the Latios to smile at the tingling feeling.

"Aw come on Ray!" Kara says, giving Ray the "sad-puppy-dog" look. Ray closes his eyes to keep himself from seeing it.

"Nope."

Kara was sitting down, but she slips herself atop Ray's body. She caresses his face and gives a teasing lick on the cheek. Ray opens an eye before closing it again.

"Pleaaase?" Kara asks, touching her nose to Ray's.

"N-no...fair..." Ray stutters, his face glowing red. He accidentally opened his eyes and got caught in her gaze.

Kara huffs in defeat and gets off the Latios. "Fine Ray, but you owe me." Kara says, giving him a wink.

Ray's blush deepens. "I'll do my best," he says, giving a sheepish smile, "But for now..."

Ray gets up and hurries over to the soul dew. He holds Ash's hat in one hand (Lucy let her uncle hold onto it during training and was so tired that she forgot to ask for it back) and reaches into the water to touch the Soul Dew with his other. He opens up sight-sharing with the soul dew, using it to see the trainer's past and what he was up to right now.

The young man's past was crystal clear to the Latios, and apart from being a little stubborn and having an unlucky tendency to get electrocuted by Pikachu or burned by some Charizard...he seems like a good enough kid. But the more recent past and present are a bit harder to make out...the images were blurry, like the reception was bad. He can see a boy in armor and a sniper rifle, slowly walking towards an area with dozens of other armored men. Ray could see broken buildings, war-torn areas, and dozens of battle-weary soldiers. The visions finally circle around to his face; a hardened one but still showing a deep compassion beneath it all...then the visions end.

Ray lets go of the Soul Dew and shakes his hand to get rid of the water. "Turned from a whiny boy to a soldier in a month..." Ray says, serious now.

"That was Ash?" Kara asks, having joined in the visions shortly before they started to get blurry. "I can see why Lucy likes him. He's not that bad looking and seems like he's got a big heart."

Ray doesn't reply, but sets the hat down near the fountain before pulling a small object out of his pocket. It was a metal finger with a bunch of severed wires poking out.

"What's that?" Kara asks, looking at the weird piece of metal.

"Its from a 'maverick', those things that attacked the garden with the two ladies that are in jail right now." Ray replies, also pulling out some prosthetic skin and a military beret. He motions to the skin and adds, "This is from that boy...Cyphrus. The one that they were talking about. This beret supposedly belonged to one of the soldiers that died here."

Ray tightly holds onto the objects and reaches back in to touch the Soul Dew. He reactivates the Soul Dew to watch the battles that raged here, and the fights and the war in Cyphrus' home. He and Kara watch as Cyphrus' dark past unfurls in front of them; so much darkness and misery came cascading out from his war-torn life.

It overwhelms Ray who breaks the sight-sharing before the visions finish. The Latios glances away while Kara just looks on, dumbstruck.

"Oh my Arceus..." Kara whispers, looking down at the sparkling orb in the water. "How does that guy still smile like that?"

"I don't know...he's been through a lot more than we have," Ray replies, turning to Kara.

She nods, her eyes looking like they were on the verge of tears.

"Yet it took us so long to get over it. He's really capable of hiding his past," Ray says, letting the finger and skin fall from his hand. The finger tumbles into the grass while the fake-skin gets blown away in the wind. The Latios turns toward the hidden grave, marking where the boy named Shawn Bennueto rested in peace. The boots and rifle remained untouched, marking the memorial of that brave soldier.

Ray and Kara walk over to the grave and place the beret back on the grave. Both of them politely bow, paying their respects to the fallen soldier.

"I hope Cyphrus finds his sis." Ray says, empathizing with the other man. Kara silently nods.

The stand in front of the grave for a few more seconds before Ray says, "Come on, let's go back to the apartment."

"Okay," Kara distantly says. Before Ray could even take a step, she quickly catches him in a hug.

"Ray...don't go anywhere..." she whispers, her voice shaky, as she buries her face into the crook of Ray's shoulder.

Ray pulls her close and holds tightly onto Kara.

"Don't worry," Ray says, resting a hand under Kara's snout and lifting it so she could see him. Her ruby eyes look deeply into Ray's soft golden ones.

"I won't."

~!~

DB: Well there you have it, more mysteries, more fun, and more characters!

CJ: And yes, there really is such a thing as the 'cobra maneuver'.

DB: (nods) Its actually designed for pilots to fire at pursuing aircraft, but why not tinker with it a little to let Latis dodge?

CJ: I've got Ace Combat 4 to thank for introducing me to this chapter. Its also thanks to that game's soundtrack that I got enough creativity to make this chapter.

DB: Yes well, I'll leave you to your flying antics. I've got a rowdy bunch of smashers to get back to. Can you handle the ending?

CJ: Sure.

DB: (nods before hurrying off)

CJ: Thanks for reading this super-chapter and see you in the next one! Till then! (waves goodbye)


	6. An Eventful Interlude

DB: Oh the things I get dragged into...

CJ: Hey, I let you skip over this chapter. You said no.

DB: I said I'd improve every chapter of this story you write and that means _every_ chapter...no matter how embarrassing some parts are.

CJ: Fine whatever.

DB: You mind handling the intro? I've got...well...my own takes on these characters to attend to.

CJ: Yea, yea, go on. Well, as you might've guessed from our discussion; there are some parts of this chapter that are really getting close to the rating limits. It shouldn't be exceeding them, but its still a warning; anyone not a teenager should skip from the first line break to the fifth.

(Stops to think)

CJ: Oh yea, just to get in the habit of this; neither Darkblur nor I own Pokemon or any related trademarks, they are all property of Nintendo/Game Freak. Darkblur owns part of the literary copyrights to this story, and I own the rest as well the OC's Ray, Kara, Blaze, and any others. That's done; go ahead and read.

~!~

Chapter 5 An Eventful Interlude

A small figure cracks open an eye as the rising sun bathes him in light. He scowls and moves into the shade created by a nearby chimmney, anxious to stay out of the bright light. "Damn sun...and I was napping so nicely," he grunts to himself.

Some soft chirping draws his attention away from the star, pulling it to a small flock of Pidgey across from him, chirping and rustling themselves as they wake up.

The figure growls before releasing a small lightning-bolt at the birds, getting them to scatter.

He smirks to himself, revealing a single, pointed fang. "Now I feel better."

A crackling on his radio draws his attention, and he quickly flips it open while hissing "What?!"

His eyes quickly widen, "N-Number 01! My apologies."

He listens intently for about a minute before nodding, "Understood. You can count on me. Over and out." He clicks the radio off before quickly glaring at it. "Pompous bitch." he adds before leaping away to a nearby roof.

"She may have frightened everyone else, but I'm not as easily rattled."

~!~

Ray woke up with a yawn, craning his Lati head left and right to look around. He grunts upon remembering that he was in his Altomareian apartment. The bed truly was comfortable, both him and Kara fell right to sleep upon hitting the sheets.

He rubs at his eyes with a claw before looking over to see Kara's ear twitch in her sleep. He gently tosses the sheets away, finding that she forgot to remove her vest; but she still seemed to have slept peacefully. The Latios sighs before twisting his neck both ways, getting several loud cracks to ring out.

"That's disgusting..." groans Kara's voice as she rolls over, hiding her face from the sun in the window.

Ray smirks before licking the side of her face. _"Good morning,"_ he hums, getting her to smile and giggle into the pillow.

The Latios levitates out of the bed and floats out towards the bathroom for a refreshing morning shower, shutting the door behind him, but not noticing that it didn't latch.

Kara's lips curl into a devious smile when her ears don't hear a lock clicking, and the Lucario slips out of bed and sneaks up to the bathroom; quietly slipping in and shutting the door behind her.

Through the frosted glass of the shower door, she could see the silhouette of a Latios leaning forward to turn on the water, completely unaware of his guest.

She blissfully grins upon noticing that the shower was plenty big enough for them both. Kara silently removes her vest and lets it drop to the floor while walking up to the shower. The yellow fur covered her chest, but then she puts her hands on her hips and gently exhales. The blue fur all around her thighs and hips suddenly compresses; clinging tightly to her shapely legs and becoming just as streamlined as the fur on her arms.

Kara quietly slides open the shower door, steps in behind Ray, and shuts the door with her tail...but pulled a little too hard and accidentally slammed it.

Hearing the loud noise spooked Ray as his hand was on the cold water knob, getting him to twist to a full on blast. The figid cold water erupts out of the tap and all over the Dragon-type pokemon, getting him to yelp, leap into the air, and flatten against the roof.

Kara can't help but laugh at her fiance, his adversion to the cold was worse than her aversion to the heat. "Don't think I've seen you move that fast!" she exclaims.

"_Kara!"_ Ray exclaims, both out of shock and embarrassment at seeing her (essentially) nude.

The Lucario chuckles at seeing his face light up red before reaching over and turning down the cold water; reverting the spray to a comfortable pressure and temperature. "Come on down," She says before purring out, "The water's fine..."

Ray gently descends back into the shower, smiling at the warm water washing over him and working through his downy fluff. He's blushing even more furiously when Kara sits down on a small ledge and winks at him.

"So who's going to get clean first?"

~!~

"_I think this is the place,"_ Josh says as he and Lucy land on the balcony of Kara and Ray's place while camouflaged. Josh hooks a claw around the handle of the sliding glass door and gives a quick tug to see if it was open. Sure enough, the door slides right out of the way.

Lucy psychically shuts the door behind them while they materialize, a plate of food in the paws; one in each, all holding various breakfast foods.

"_It sure was nice for Bianca to make breakfast for them,"_ Lucy smiles.

"I guesh sho,"Josh says through his second bite of bacon, shrugging in the process.

"_Big Brother!"_ Lucy scolds, giving her brother a smack with her wing.

"_What?"_ Josh innocently asks, the end of the bacon strip hanging out of his mouth. He braces for Lucy's lecture about how the food was for their relatives and everything, sighing through his nose

"_You've eaten enough of the bacon! Give me some of it!"_ Lucy exclaims, trying to reach for the bacon plate without dropping the plate of waffles.

Josh pulls the bacon from his mouth before shushing his sister. _"Stay quiet! They might still be sleeping."_

Right as Lucy turns to check the hallway, Josh pops the rest of his bacon into his mouth. Lucy playfully shoves her brother, but he just triumphantly sticks out his tongue. The two set the plates of food down on the table before floating to the bedroom.

"_Uncle Ray?"_ Lucy softly asks, looking around the corner into the bedroom. It was empty. She raises an eyebrow. _"Where'd they..."_

She's interrupted by a faint moan from one of the rooms down the hall.

"_Are they in here?"_ Josh asks, slowly opening the bathroom door and poking his head in. Lucy's head come around the corner just above her brother's. Their eyes widen and while their mouths open to scream, Lucy's paw flies out to cover Josh's mouth while his paw does the same to Lucy's. Lying on the floor was a blue vest, and through the frosted glass the two could see the outline of the Latios and Lucario...very close to one another.

Josh and Lucy turn around and quickly hurry back out of the apartment, camouflaging themselves as they fly away; not even bothering to close the sliding glass door.

"_Holy..."_ Josh mutters, speechless. He dives down into one of the canals, hoping the water would help.

Lucy kept flying towards the garden, feeling as if the red was visible through her camouflage. _"What in the world...?"_ Lucy says to herself, before gasping and shaking her head, trying to get rid of the image burned into her mind.

~!~

"What a way to start a day," Kara sighs, watching Ray lower himself enough for her to lie down on his back (She had her leg fur puffed up again and her vest back on by the way).

He deviously smiles, _"What a _great_ way to start a day," _he corrects in a chuckle.

Kara slides herself down Ray's back, making him shiver.

"_Where did you get the idea to do _that _in the morning?"_ Ray asks, chewing at the last of his pancake.

"I dunno, just got the idea. Besides, you owed me anyway." Kara giggles, and then looks up at the balcony door, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head. "Did we leave that door open last night?"

~!~

When Ray flew into the garden with Kara, he didn't expect to find Josh dunking his head into the waters of the Soul Dew fountain.

"_Uh...Josh? You alright?"_ Ray asks while Kara hops off his back and walks over to Bianca and Lucy.

"Good morning you two," Kara says giving them a toothy grin.

"Good morning," Bianca replies, giving the pokemon a sly smile. Lucy remains silent, trying to hide the red tint on her face with a claw. It takes the Lucario a few seconds to realize while Lucy was redder than normal, but once she does; she seems to shrink as _her _face goes beet red too.

"Oh...uhhh..." Kara points towards Blaze, who was lying on his back in a shady area and snoring away. "I'm gonna wake him up." She finishes while speeding away.

Bianca starts giggling while Lucy, out of embarrassment, turns invisible again.

Once beside the overturned Typhlosion, Kara takes a few deep breaths while waving a little air in her face. After settling down, she gives Blaze a nudge (which to a person would feel more like a weak punch) to wake him up.

The Typhlosion snorts before sitting up. "Huh what?" he asks before yawning and revealing all of his large teeth, "It mornin' already?"

Back at the Soul Dew fountain, Ray took a quick peek into Josh's mind, chuckles at what was waiting for him and turns a little red also. "Hoo boy...looks like I've got some explaining to do with today's lesson." he admits, resting a paw over his face.

Pikachu was witness to these strange events, observing the whole ordeal from up on a branch. He tilts his head curiously before leaping down and scurrying away into the workshop; planning on avoiding the awkward moments he was sure would come.

"_Alright, no sense in delaying it," _Ray announces, _"Kara, take the girls and I'll take the guys. We'll go in there."_ Ray directs motioning to the empty room that was Cyphrus' while he was here. Kara nods at the older Latios, understanding what he was talking about.

"_Come on you," _Ray says, grabbing Josh by the wing and pulling him into the room; Blaze following after them.

Kara looks at the other girls and gives a 'follow-me' wave, leading them towards another empty room. The two doors shut simultaneously.

"Alright, lets get real here." Ray says, speaking in English to avoid the risk of his telepathy leaking into the girl's room. "You seem to know what mating is, so I don't have to explain the Pidgeots and Beedrills right?" Josh nods.

Blaze turns a little crimson, realizing what he wandered into.

…

"...And that's what sex is," Bianca says to Lucy. The Latias nods.

"_Um...in there...was that sex?"_ Lucy asks.

"Well, sort of," Kara replies, rubbing at the back of her head with a blush spreading over her muzzle.

…

"_What do you mean 'sort of'?" _Josh asks.

"Lets just say that we hit base three and leave it at that." Ray replies.

"Now, these are the bases..." Blaze starts.

…

"_Wait...what's oral?" _Lucy asks the two. Bianca leans over and whispers the answer to her ear.

"_Isn't that disgusting?"_ She asks, innocence still present in her words.

Bianca and Kara glance at each other before sighing.

...

"_So you two hit base three?" _Josh asks, putting up three claws.

Ray shrugs, "Yeah. But hey, you better mate with somebody you're sure you're going to spend the rest of your life with," Ray answers, giving his nephew a hard, serious stare, "And _don't _have sex before marriage."

…

"_Why?"_ Lucy asks, still speaking out of curiousity. Bianca glances at the Lucario.

"It's not smart," Kara replies, crossing her arms, "Sex is a very powerful thing, it's supposed to strengthen the relationship between two lovers. But the thing is... when done wrong or without care, it can also tear people apart."

"Think of it this way. The two people are like two sheets of paper, and sex is like gluing them together. If you try to tear them apart, they don't split cleanly do they?" Bianca explains, "They always carry pieces of the other when taken apart."

"_Wait...but didn't you...do it, before you two got married?" _Lucy asks.

…

"Well, we're pokemon, not human. I'm talking human terms for some reason," Ray says, knocking himself on the forehead.

"When _we_ mate, it's a symbol of marriage. That's why you got to mate with the right person buddy," Blaze adds, giving Josh a playful flick on his forehead. Josh's tint of red disappears as he realizes how serious of a matter mating really is.

"Once you're married or surely mated, you can do whatever you want with your mate...with her permission of course. Kara and I are going to publicly and lawfully wed someday," Ray finishes; Josh watched Ray's gold eyes sparkle with excitement.

"How do you know when you find the right person?" Josh asks, getting his uncle to smile.

…

Kara smiles at Lucy, who seemed to have a sheepish smile on her face.

"You just know. You can tell if you two truly love and are meant for each other," Kara wisely replies, "But it isn't all about the physical stuff."

…

"_It...isn't?"_ Josh asks, tilting his head in confusion. He never felt deep feelings for anyone else before, so he didn't quite understand.

"Love is stereotyped too much," Blaze grumbles, shaking his head.

Ray nods in agreement, "Love is when you're willing to spend the rest of your time with her, comfort her when she's down, have fun with her, be close to her as a friend instead of a spouse, and _especially_ when you're willing to put your life on the line for her sake."

…

"Don't ever base a relationship on something as pathetic as wealth or physical appearance. Sure, it's fine to..." Kara shakes her head before smiling, "You'll just know, okay?"

Bianca smiles too, looking at her friend.

"I know you still like that Ash boy, so if you're ever going to be mates with him, marry him first and then seal it with the sign of mating," Kara adds.

Lucy nods, dreaming of Ash. She blushes as her mind fantasizes about their marriage and life together, then her expression pulls a one-eighty as her head droops. _"I want him to come back," _She says, heartbroken, _"I need to tell him how I really feel..."_

…

"_Should I marry a human, or just be mates with a pokemon?"_ Josh asks.

Ray and Blaze shrug. "I have no idea, that's all based a bit on what you think." Ray pauses to point at Josh's heart, "And a lot on what that tells ya. Use your own judgment, you'll be good at that." He finishes with a grin. "Now that should about wrap up our talk, time to get back to practice!"

The older Latios gets up and leads the others out of the room.

…

Ray's group finished up just as Kara and the girls finished as well. The two groups meet in the middle of the garden, with Ray smiling at his relatives. _"Alright you two, go do some flying exercises over the ocean, we'll be there in a minute. Try the things I taught you yesterday!"_

Josh and Lucy nod before flying into the air and vanishing from sight. Blaze stretches before stomping off to go get food, leaving Ray and Kara alone in the garden.

"How'd it go?" Ray asks, transforming into a human.

"She took it well, I kept an eye on her aura and she was more curious than embarrassed. Josh?" Kara replies with her trademark toothy grin.

Ray smirks. "He took it a lot better than I thought; he's really mature about this. Whoever marries him is gonna be lucky girl." Ray's smile suddenly drops as he reaches into his pocket and produces the standard-issue LANCE communicator. He read the text aloud so Kara could hear:

**Thugs doing well. Good progress. Nine thugs with houndour at base, other Houndour given lodgings until compatible human matches found. Will keep you informed.**

**-Lloyd**

~!~

"Geez, what up with the uniforms?" JT asks, his Houndour walking proudly beside him. The two are walking down a bright white hallway with white polished tiles. He was wearing a black shirt, slacks, belt, and a gold handkerchief tied loosely around his neck.

"He doesn't take a lot of recruits, especially now. We prefer to be a small organization anyway. You're gonna be the first one out of your group to talk with him," Lloyd says, ignoring the question.

The two reach a set of doors, which open when Lloyd swipes an ID card through the lock. "Good luck."

The door silently closes after JT and the Houndour enter. The room was a bit dark, but there was enough light to illuminate a man with his hand together, chin resting on top.

"You must be that one JT boy that Ray suggested to me," The man says. The room gradually brightens, revealing the man and the eye-patch over his right eye. He had a small beard and moustache, and looked like a very kind person with the small smile present and his eyes closed.

Spread across his desk are an assortment of pens and papers, while on the wall behind him is a sheathed saber that seemed to be large enough for a Machoke. Two windows, one on each side of the ornament, are letting the light enter the room.

"Please, sit." The man says, waving his hand to gesture at the chair in front of his desk. "Your Houndour too."

JT walks forward and sits in the red cushy chair, his Houndour seating herself on a small mat. With a faint whir, a platform beneath the mat lifts the small pokemon up to JT's eye level.

"Well, no need for fancy language. Do you think you have what it takes to be a part of LANCE?" The man asks, opening his eye to reveal a pitch black orb.

"Well, to be honest sir, I just came here because Ray told me to," JT replies. The Houndour seems to laugh. The man turns to the Houndour.

"And this is?"

JT remains silent.

"You don't ever know your partner's name?" the man asks, raising an eyebrow.

JT shakes his head, "We just met."

The man chuckles. "Her name is Iris. Now let me see your hand for a brief second."

JT slowly raised his fist and shows off the scar with a surprised expression.

"Hmm, this isn't bad." The man says, stroking his beard. "And you two just met?"

The Houndour barks, getting him to chuckle again.

"This is very rare, be glad for it."

JT smirks. "I am, so...Iris was it?" The teen asks, turning his head to look at the Houndour. The dog barks to say yes.

"Yes, well...when I look at you two..." The man starts, his smile disappearing. JT looks back at him while his smirk goes away.

"You two don't have what it takes yet. Go back to where you came from, and-" He suddenly stops in mid-sentence and raises his head, as if listening to someone.

"Actually...welcome to the syndicate. I'm pretty sure you will be fine," The man says.

JT blinks, "Oh, well...Thank you!" He gets up and politely bows.

JT turns to leave as Iris hops down from the mat, but both jump backward when they see two Zangoose beside the door, their arms crossed and eyes trained on them. The four eyes watch them leave the room, and they don't look back to the man until they hear receding footsteps.

Once the door shuts, the one of the left speaks up. "You are letting that weak human in?" she asks in a feminine voice.

"I wasn't going to let that street rat in, but looks like the mastermind has different opinions," The man replies.

The Zangoose on the right uncrosses his arms and steps forward, letting the light reflect of his shiny blue fur.

"What did he say?" he asks in a hoarse male voice.

The man gets up, puts his hands behind his back, and turns to look at the window.

"Sir?" The female, also a shiny-colored, asks.

"He says that they have potential, the whole group of them. We're just going to have to trust him."

"Of course you three have to trust me." An icy voice says to the three of them, getting the fur of the Zangoose to crawl.

The male sighs, "I hate when he does that."

~!~

"Well, they're in good shape." Ray remarks, smirking as he watches his relatives fly around over the ocean's surface. He was floating just above the surface, with Kara laying stomach-down on his back and only the warm sun on her back.

"That's good," Kara yawns, slightly drowsy from her soft bed and the warm sun. Ray, using his psychic powers, closely watches the determined faces of his niece and nephew. It seemed as if the little talk didn't have any effect on how close the two were, like they never even had it in the first place.

"Hey! You two! Did you guys stretch first?" Ray yells out in his native tongue. Lucy and Josh stop dead in their tracks, and from down at the water, Ray can see the scared faces of both fledglings.

"Oh boy," Ray says with a smirk, "Get over here!" He rockets towards the two, dropping Kara in the process. She's only saved a free bath by forming a quick aura bubble beneath her.

After sighing at the near-plunge, she looks up at the sky to see Lucy and Josh flying away from Ray, who seemed quite focused on rounding up the two. To be honest, it was quite amusing to see the two smaller Latis flying away from the larger one; who always seemed to be just a claw's length away from catching them.

Finally Ray catches his relatives, holding each one in a firm headlock as he drags them back towards Altomare.

"No no no no no!" Lucy cries, trying to wiggle out of Ray's firm grip. Josh, having quickly discovered that it was futile, just sighs and lets his uncle pull him along.

"Come on Kara, we got to teach these two how important stretching is!" Ray cackles, towing his relatives towards Altomare and activating his camouflage in the process; removing all three from view. Kara can only sigh before following with Extremespeed.

The Lucario rushes along through a canal before leaping up onto a bridge, and then to the rooftops. What she didn't notice, however, was a FUZE agent nearby who saw her leap away. The agent's cloak rustled in the wind caused by Kara, but the person continues on his original path.

However, he also flips open a small communicator and holds it to his ear. "Shadohm? Yes, I've got a lead on one of your targets. Saw it heading west on-" he stops to check a street-sign. "West on Coro-Coro street. Careful, she's on the rooftops."

He nods before clicking off the communicator and putting it away.

~!~

"Now what did I tell you?" Ray asks with an evil look on his face.

"Stretch before practice?" Lucy replies with a whimper.

"Bingo!" Ray exclaims, before noogying both of them with his claws. Both start flailing around in Ray's headlock before being freed. Ray triumphantly laughs before adding, "Come on you two, stretch!"

"Hey Ray," Blaze grunts; getting the Latios to turn around.

"Oh hey, what's up?" he asks.

Just as Blaze was about to speak, he takes notice of Josh and Lucy bending their limbs and bodies into awkward positions. "Are...they supposed to do that?" Blaze asks, sweatdropping.

"Yeah, of course." Ray smiles.

Blaze shakes his head. "Just don't get me to do that...anyway, looks like Sparks found himself a girlfriend." he says, ending with a cheeky smile. Lucy turns her head in interest.

"Sparks?" Ray questions.

"The Pikachu? The one that helped you and Kara move in yesterday?"

"Didn't realize that was his name."

"That's what I call him, lots better than just 'Pikachu'." Blaze grumbles. "Anyway, he's in the workshop with a girl Pikachu named...uh...Amy, was it?"

Ray nods, "So I suppose that's why he wasn't here for our little talk."

Blaze shrugs. "Still can't believe I blundered into helping you with that..."

"Josh and Lucy caught a glimpse of what Kara and I did this morning...so we had to explain it before something bad happened." Ray laughs, getting the Typhlosion to sweatdrop again. "That reminds me...who's the lucky lady?" Ray asks, nudging Blaze with an elbow.

"Her name's Sara..." Blaze admits, sheepishly smiling.

Ray's eyes widen, "Another Typhlosion?"

Blaze nods. "Yep. We were secretly dating, and then became mates right before you two left on your break," Blaze says, smirking a little.

Ray cackles, "You may have won Kara, but you're still not getting chocolate!"

Kara, who had arrived just after Ray and Blaze started talking and was supervising the fledglings, "humph"s while crossing her arms and mumbling something about her precious chocolate.

"Seriously?" Blaze asks, giving Ray an unimpressed look. "You two _bet_ on my relationship?"

Ray claws at his nose like a human would with his thumb. At a faint noise, he and Blaze turn to see Sparks leading Amy into the garden; paw-in-paw. Amy's brown eyes, deeper even than Sparks', widened and sparkled at the sheer size of the place.

"Oh my gosh, when was this here?" Amy asks, referencing the garden and not the three Latis.

Ray glares golden daggers at Sparks, but the male Pikachu just ignores and leads Amy towards them.

"I don't know when it was built, but you can't tell a single person about this place, okay?" Sparks says more than asks.

Amy turns and winks at him, "It's okay. I'm good at keeping secrets," she says, giving him a quick lick on the cheek. If Sparks blushed, the natural red spots hid it well.

Then the two mice look up at the much larger pokemon. Blaze was watching with a smirk while Ray was shaking his head back-and-forth. He gives the two mice another cautious look before turning and chirping at his niece and nephew; telling them that they can stop.

"Amy!" Lucy chirps as the other three pokemon come over.

Amy closed her eyes and looks back up at the Latias. "I recognize that voice! No way! Is it really you?" Lucy smiles and nods.

"You going to introduce her?" Kara asks.

"Oh, right!" Sparks' ears perk up. "Guys, this is Amy." She squeaks a hi, which is returned by everyone; even Ray. His suspicion disappeared when Lucy addressed Amy as a friend.

"So you're Amy. Nice to meet you," Ray says, giving the small pokemon (she was a little smaller than Sparks) a smile and extending a clawed hand towards her. Amy returns the smile before grabbing a single claw and shaking.

"Nice to meet you sir."

"Just call me Ray," He replies before introducing the rest, including Lucy.

"So that's your real name, huh?" Amy's ears droop a little while Sparks' remain up.

"It is now!" Lucy smiles, shapeshifting into a Pikachu. She looks identical to Amy, but her fur has a pinkish tint to it. Her eyes are also a bright gold instead of the normal brown. The three Pikachu quickly bound away with Josh (who remains as a Latios) to start playing.

"Hmm..." Kara mumbles, resting a paw to her chin.

Ray chuckles, "Looks like there's love everywhere." Kara smiles before turning to Blaze, same as Ray.

The Typhlosion takes one look at their devious grins and starts backing away.

"Where do you think you're going, Mr. 'I'm-too-cool-to-share-my-love-life-with-my-best-friends?'" Kara laughs.

Ray joins in before adding, "Come on, let's talk," and resting a paw on Blaze's shoulder. Blaze sweats a little while watching his friends box him against the wall. In the end, Blaze gives in with a sigh.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Is she pregnant?" Ray immediately asks. Kara and Blaze both turn to him with faces redder than Magikarp.

"RAY!" The two simultaneously shout, causing Ray to laugh out loud at their reactions.

After a long pause, Blaze takes a deep breath before nodding; "Yeah..."

Ray and Kara's ears perk up, Ray's laughing stops short, and both turn to him with wide eyes.

"Wait...seriously?" Ray asks, "I was just kidding around!"

"Well...she _was_. Already laid the egg, it should hatch in another month or so." Blaze admits.

Ray blinks before lighting up with a smile. "Congrats!" He exclaims, patting his buddy on the shoulder. "What're you going to name him?"

"No idea..." Blaze says, "Sara doesn't know of a name either."

"I can't wait until I see that tiny Cyndaquil!" Kara gushes, her tail eagerly swishing about. "Oh! How about Cole?" She suggests.

Blaze turns the name over a few times before nodding. "Not bad."

"How about..." Ray pauses to put a claw to his chin...

"Shawn."

"Shawn?" Blaze asks. Kara looks at Ray with a sad smile. Blaze sighs before pushing his friend's hands away and motions at the grave on the far side of the garden. "Shawn..." he repeats, "You guys saw what was in the boots, right?"

His two friends look at the Typhlosion, whose fists were starting to clench. "N-no, what was in it?" Kara asks, her smile disappearing.

"Never mind..." Blaze almost growls; puffing out a ring of smoke. The other give the Typhlosion a little space... his species is known to cause explosions when angered, but it's mostly to avoid the smoke.

"Poor guy, but I'll look into the name." Blaze smirks, stopping the smoke. Ray returns the smirk before offering a clenched paw for Blaze to hit his into. Blaze solidly hits it before chuckling "Thanks guys. Now, what do we do?"

The Typhlosion lies down, or more aptly falls, backwards into the grass, looking up at the semi-overcast sky through the leaves.

"I dunno. Lucy and the others are having so much fun, it seems mean to make them stop for practice; we might as well look around Altomare and get a feel for the place while they're having fun." Ray admits, turning to watch the three Pikachu leap between Josh and a tree in some version of tag.

"It's shady and cool, pleasant breeze. I'm in." Kara admits, stretching and yawning.

Blaze grunts while throwing himself back to his feet, landing with a good thud. "Sounds good, let's go."

~!~

"Scar right?" DJ asks, speaking to the Houndour sitting at his feet. Not only did the dog have a scar on his right ear, but also one on the eyelids of his right eye, which went unnoticed in the dim lights of the boat.

The Houndour barks a yes, barely glancing over his shoulder. He sat with an erect, distinguished posture, unlike Iris who was partially leaning against JT's legs. The two are still in the formal uniforms and are sitting on a bench, waiting for the rest of their gang to get appraised. DJ is leaning back with his hands behind his head while JT was leaning forward, resting head in hands and elbows on knees.

"Yeah, Scar. That's what that guy said anyway right?" JT asks. To save time, after DJ's meeting, the rest of the gang went in all at once.

"Yeah, guess so," DJ admits, before laughing, "That scar makes you look badass." The Houndour almost seems to laugh at his partner's comment.

"I wonder if we'll be able to actually learn their language, that'll be kinda cool don't you think?" JT asks, watching as Iris yawns before lying down.

"I don't even think that's possible."

"Don't they have a TM for that? I heard a rumor about a TM that teaches a pokemon the Human language," JT says, looking at his friend out of the corner of his eye.

"That's crazy. Can't we have some telepathic dude to help us communicate with them?"

"Like that Ray dude?" JT asks, putting emphasis on 'Ray'.

"Yeah, like that guy. I mean, we could hear everything in our heads. I heard telepathics could speak to pokemon."

"I dunno, we'll see." JT says, bowing his head and grunting. "I miss that bed they gave us, they were ridiculously comfortable."

"Best bed I ever slept in," DJ comments, crossing his legs. After a minute of silence, the Houndour start nodding off; drooping their heads and ears before snapping them upright for a second, then drooping again.

Out of nowhere, JT ruffles his own hair with hands and gives a little shout in frustration. "Why does it have to be so damn boring in this room?!?"

The Houndour snap their eyes open at the human's outburst. Right when he said that, they hear a door slide open and the sound of dress shoes on the white tile floor. JT and DJ get up and see the rest of the gang walking towards them, their Houndour just behind them.

"Well?" DJ asks.

"We're all in!" The first one exclaims, smirking. The same expression is on his Houndour while he walks towards Scar, the two conversing in their own language of low barks.

"Alright all of you, we're going to give you and your pokemon standard medical exams. Get into the elevator and the Mastermind will do the rest," Lloyd says, one hand in his pocket and the other pointing towards the wall with the elevators. One of them opens up on its own, revealing a large, luxurious elevator.

The Houndour and humans give each other strange looks before walking together into the large compartment, plenty big enough to fit a dozen Golem.

"What floor is it?" JT asks, giving a small wave towards the waving Lloyd.

"Don't worry about it." he smirks as the doors close.

"Now what?" DJ asks. Almost to answer him, the second floor button presses itself and the elevator begins descending.

"_Welcome to LANCE, I'm very pleased to meet you and your counterparts."_ Every occupant starts looking around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.

"_Why, you all look confused,"_ The voice seems to chuckle,_ "But don't worry, It's natural to be puzzled at the sound of a voice in your hand. You can call me the Mastermind, I am the main leader of the LANCE Syndicate, using my telepathic powers and cutting edge technology to communicate to every member of LANCE. I'm glad to have you onboard."_

JT shifts his feet and pets Iris, who was softly growling.

"_LANCE was formed not too long ago, and is currently growing in number to a global level already. You will be given exams on your physical and mental health along with your pokemon (or human) counterpart. I'll tell you about how everything works later. Thank you for you cooperation."_

"Jeez, sounds like one of those voices you hear about big companies while you're on a tour or something," One gang member says, getting the rest to chuckle a little.

The elevator stops and the doors open, revealing what was probably the most state-of-the-art medical room in the whole world. Doctors and nurses bustled around, carrying clipboards or small bozes of supplies. Surprisingly, very few Chansey were actually visible. Out of the pokemon visible, most of them were Gardevoir, Hypno, and Roselia.

A few rather cute and buxom female nurses walk up to the group along with a Kirlia. "We're here to give you all your exams. Kristine here will take care of your Houndour." One of the nurses says.

The Kirlia nods at the Houndour and leads the dogs in one direction while the women lead the humans in the other direction.

"I have a bad feeling about this," One of the members says, crossing his arms.

"Why?" JT asks, turning to look at him.

He shudders, "Needles..."

~!~

Ray is in his human, smiling as he walks between his two pokemon friends. It was quite abnormal to see a Typhlosion and a Lucario following what appeared to be their trainer, and already some people were asking how he got them.

"I just became friends with them; you'd be surprised at what befriending a pokemon can do." Is Ray's answer to the questions.

It was quite nice today, with a gentle breeze blowing through the streets along with some shade kept Kara and Ray nice and cool. Blaze, however, had his fire going at eighth strength so he was warm and comfortable.

"Floating city huh?" Blaze asks.

"Yeah, also the city of thieves. There's a ton of thieves around Altomare, but they're all just about gone nowadays," Ray says, sticking his hands in his pockets, semi-listening to his footsteps on the stone pavers.

"I can see why, there's a lot of escape tunnels and water canals that can help with a good getaway," Kara says, constantly craning her neck around, noticing every little detail as they walked.

"Raphael was the best thief out there, when we were living off of scraps back then. But then again, being invisible is a nice plus," Ray corrects himself.

Blaze just scoffs. "Easy for you to say, all I see over here is water." Blaze could cut off the fire on his back, but having water around always made the Fire-type a little uncomfortable at times.

"No better for me," Kara shrugs, her steel skeleton more than capable of dragging her down to the ocean floor in seconds.

"We all have our disadvantages," Ray says, leading the way around the corner. He suddenly stops and slaps his forehead. "Shoot!"

Kara and Blaze turn to him immediately. "What's wrong?" They simultaneously ask.

"I forgot to report all this to the Mastermind..."

Kara and Blaze's mouths drop open. "It's been almost three days!" Kara exclaims, grabbing onto Ray's shoulders and shaking him, "Didn't Lloyd tell the Mastermind about the garden and the Soul Dew and the DMA and everything?!?"

Ray puts his hands in surrender and sweat-drops. "No, I'll just report to him after our little walk, don't worry too much!" Ray says, sighing.

Blaze shakes his head, "Knowing him, he's probably going to give you the silent treatment or something. That's ever scarier than a guy who's blatantly angry, with a silent guy, you just don't know when or how he's gonna attack you with his fury," Blaze shuddered..

"Speaking of Mastermind, weren't you guys surprised when you found out who it really was?" Ray asks. Kara and Blaze immediately plaster smiles on their faces.

"Oh yeah, but it was pretty cool though."

"Who would've thought that the Mastermind was-" Ray and Blaze quickly cover up Kara's mouth.

"We can't say his name, remember?!" Blaze hisses.

She lets out a muffled 'yes' and the two let go. Kara guiltily laughs, "Sorry."

Ray sighs, "It's alright. I wonder how the world's going to react once they see who's really behind LANCE."

Two eyes underneath the hood of a cloaked figure narrow as they watch the group wander through the streets; always keeping them in view from their perch atop a nearby roof. The figure silently jumps to the next rooftop, shadowing them the same it had been for the past ten minutes.

Unlike most of the other cloaked FUZE agents, this one's cloak had no sleeves and a decorative bronze clip holding the neck area closed.

Ray looks down at the stone pavement, keeping himself occupied by trying to avoid stepping on a crack between stones.

"Probably with fear, after all those incidents with Rocket and all."

Right as Blaze says this, the three pokemon stop. Kara's ears perk up, Blaze's nose sniffs twice, and Ray raises his head out of instinct. The three turn their heads to the rooftop behind them, but only see the clouds and a Spearow flying by.

"I smelled something," Blaze says, "It definitely wasn't normal."

"And I know I heard something there; want me to check it out?" Kara said, also sniffing.

Ray gives her a single nod, prompting Kara into lowering her head, shutting her eyes, and opening aura sight. After a few seconds she tilts her head a little, then suddenly gasps and snaps her eyes open.

"What is it?" Ray asks, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

She looks at him with a serious expression. "I saw a figure...a _single_ figure, but _multiple_ aura signatures!"

**Meanwhile...**

"Looks like I got found, but no matter. They can't track or catch me that easily," The cloaked figure mumbles to himself, already on a rooftop two blocks from Ray and still fleeing.

"This is Shadohm, my tailing was compromised due to a wind shift and I have to return to base." The cloaked figure says aloud, making sure the smaller communicator in his ear picked him up.

"_Roger that, we're looking into LANCE as we speak. It looks like there are no confirmed files on LANCE; they are a syndicate after all. Our first true mission is going to be soon. RTB authorized."_ The transmission ends with a click.

"Damn Typhlosion, didn't realize that thing could smell so well...I'm just glad the Lucario didn't come after me, no telling how I'd shake her." Shadohm says to himself. "At least, not without blowing what I am..."

~!~

JT walks out of one of the examination rooms (that kept the plain white color choice), grumbling along with his friends. Each one had been poked at, stabbed, pricked, and ordered around. Underneath his uniform were enough bandages to make a decent mummy costume.

The humans gather in front of the elevators just as their Houndour come trotting back down the hallway, growling at all of the procedures. An elevator opens and all of them get shoved in. Like before, the doors shut, a button presses itself, and the elevator begins to move.

"_I see that you didn't really enjoy the medical checkups, no matter. No one really likes them anyway... I hate them too to be honest. As I was saying, you will be put wherever I think you go best depending on how you and your team-mate work together. First, we're going to train you all. Since you are all recruits, you'll be given a tiny amount of slack, but I still want you to show what you've got!"_

The door opens to reveal an enormous combat area in the basement; big enough to comfortably fit a dozen _Steelix_. From their vantage point up on the catwalks, they could see pokemon and humans training in all manner of styles. In one area are a few cubicles, each of which holds a pokemon and a human; practicing hand-to-hand combat against each other. Next to that is a shooting range, where a human and a Breloom were taking turns blasting at targets; the human with what looked like a small rifle and the Breloom with Bullet Seed.

Opposite those two is a large area that seemed empty, but a closer look would reveal several devices springing out of the ground, firing off some kind of elemental attack at the trainees, then darting back into the floor. Beside the elemental field is an obstacle course, as well as a running track, and more traditional equipment like punching bags and a set of weight tables.

Scattered in between are s many odd little training areas that nobody could count them all, and some just couldn't be understood at a glance.

"They ain't got a lot of people for a place this big," One of the thugs comments.

"This way guys!" Lloyd practically shouts from the other end of the catwalk.

Once all of the gang gather around Lloyd he swings an arm around to gesture at the gigantic room. "This is the battle area, yadda yadda yadda, I'm sure you get the picture. You dudes will be in the holo-room over there." He says, gesturing to a large, enclosed cube in the corner.

After leading the troops over to the room, he opens the door and reveals a blank white room. They walk in, hearing their own footsteps and the pats of the pokemon echo on the walls.

"Holo-room?"

Lloyd just smiled. "Good luck!"

The door shuts and traps the eighteen occupants in a room of white.

"Stupid human..."

JT blinks before turning to Scar and the other Houndour. The dog blinked back.

"Why do you look at me with such surprise? Are you _not_ happy I can speak your language?"

"I'm...not dreaming..." JT mumbles, pointing at the dog. "R-right?"

Scar glares at him, obviously fuming. "You infidel! Of course you are awake!"

"Scar, please. They are just humans after all." Everyone turned to Iris, who spoke with a softer, higher voice compared to Scar's gravelly, low voice. "We have been given what you humans call technical machines. They are what permit us to speak the same language you do."

"_That's_ fucking badass." DJ laughs.

"_You are not here to socialize."_ Snaps a voice through the intercom that was hidden somewhere in the room. _"We're going to run a simple simulation and see how you punks do in combat."_

"_Oh yea, almost forgot about these."_ The voice adds after a second, while a whole wall of pistols materializes in front of them.

All of them, humans and pokemon alike, jump at the shock of such a massive object showing up from thin air.

"_Take what you want; this is going to be a light combat run. You'll be fighting eighteen opponents, nine humans and nine pokemon. There is going to be a variety of pokemon types and the other humans will have the same weaponry you do. Good luck."_

JT takes two of the pistols and checks them, finding that they didn't look like normal firearms.

"_These are special weapons designed to take down the holographic opponents. Instead of bullets, they fire a quick laser pulse. This is only so you don't accidentally kill one another in reality. If one of you is shot by an opponent or a friendly, you'll only feel a harsh zap, but you will be counted as _'killed' _and removed from the simulation._

"_Those weapons still behave like the firearms they are designed after. There will be recoil, a cocking requirement between shots, and a clip size. To reload, just hold the button at the bottom of the handle for three seconds...the weapon will beep when reloaded. A word of warning, each clip only has seven shots and you've only got two clips each; counting the one in the gun. You can't give a spare clip to any of your friends, so if ya run out of ammo...well...take cover and figure out some other way of fighting back._

"_Enough with the talking, time to start the combat sequence!"_

The empty wall vanishes, replaced with a small circle of digital-green light on the floor. The circle quickly expands and begins to devour all of the white. As the circle continues to grow, a hole appears in the center and begins growing along with it.

It only took the circle about two seconds to engulf the room and move away, but when its gone, the whole gang is in the middle of a rural-street, with the sun out and no passerby.

"Dang, this looks pretty real for a hologram." One of the thugs says, switching his 'gun's' safety off. Like he said, there were leaves falling from the trees, a couple plastic bags blowing around, even a calming breeze blowing from behind them. Cars sat abandoned on the road and the houses and stores were all empty... it was more unsettling than anything else.

"If a zombie hoard comes from around the corner, I'm going to freak," another member comments.

That's when they hear an odd noise...it sounded a little like a high-pitched drone. They turn and see two Ariados standing on the roof of a nearby motor-home, and have just enough time to scatter and dodge a spray of Poison Sting.

Some of the members fire a few shots at the spiders while the Houndour release a spray of Ember. The bugs quickly fire a webbed string to a nearby building, draw themselves out of reach, and scuttle out of view.

"Come on," DJ orders, "We're too exposed out here, lets find some cover."

"Over there." Scar adds, pointing to a small store with the door hanging open. The eighteen of them regroup and hurry into the store, keeping an eye out for anymore of the hostile enemies.

The store seems like a typical corner general store, and after a thorough searching no enemies are found inside. One of the gang members and his Houndour stay on look-out at the front door while another pair guards the back.

"Alright, we almost got owned by a pair of bugs. That isn't good." DJ says.

"No _really_?" Scar remarks sarcastically.

After giving his dog a slight glare, DJ continues, "Now, I'm not saying go charging after the two. They likely fled to some of their friends. But from now on, everyone cover an angle, alright?"

"DJ!" The front lookout man yells. "We got trouble!"

Everyone turns to see a new enemy outside, this was another pokemon, but one they'd never seen before. It kinda looked like a UFO, and had a small yellow antennae on its head as well as a single, big red eye. Attached to both sides is what almost looks like a Magnemite, only each one had a single magnet underneath it and both of them had a smaller, black eye looking around. Encircling the creature at its midsection is a metal ring, and hanging off the back is a third magnet.

While they didn't know _what_ it was, they did know that it _saw_ them.

The thing utters a mechanical growl before firing a large lightning-bolt at the store, completely blowing the door off its hinges and missing the sentry by inches.

"Oh shit!" He yells, following the others into the back of the store.

The UFO-pokemon slams itself through the window and blows the counter apart with another Thunderbolt. The UFO sees the gangsters rushing out the back-door and gives chase; slamming its way through both doorways.

"Run!" JT yells, leading the gang down the alley.

"Zo-o-one." it drones, forming a sphere of electricity beneath it. It seems to yell before releasing the ball at the gang.

Despite their best efforts, the Zap Cannon attack explodes on the group, 'killing' every human and all of the Houndour.

All eighteen of them feel a really strange sensation course through their bodies. There was the harsh zap that the voice mentioned, but it only lasted a second. After that is the feeling like...like they were buried in a pile of fluff. There was a weird fuzzy sensation on both the outside and inside of their skin.

The "fuzziness" lasts maybe three seconds. Then their eyes, that were viewing an endless expanse of blue, see a weird lab-like room.

They see an array of computer stations, each manned by a Metagross that were somehow interfacing with the computers without touching them. On the opposite side of the room is a group of about thirty pokemon, ten Porygon, ten Porygon-2, and ten Porygon-Z, all floating around and laughing.

At the lead computer station, probably because of its separation from the others, is a larger-than-normal, shiny-colored silver Metagross. Standing beside the massive pokemon is a large man in a lab coat, viewing with his partner a replay of the 'battle'.

On the front wall of the room are at least fifteen different screens, each one showing the simulation from a different angle.

DJ and the others start grumbling in frustration at their pathetic attempt.

"Sloppy. No... Completely pathetic." The man says, "Look at you guys, that was a terrible execution there." Despite the pristine lab coat and the clipboard in his hands, he looks like a thug himself with his slick black hair and dark black eyes. He was also plenty big enough to give a Machoke a run for his money in an arm wrestling contest.

"All of you guys got killed and not even one of the enemies got a scratch! If this was a real battle, you all would've been destroyed. You guys need to understand that you should only run when you're outmatched, and combine your talents with those of your pokemon."

"Well if we _knew_ what the hell that thing was." one of the thugs countered.

"Magnezone." Replies the shiny-Metagross, using a voice so deep the room seems to vibrate. "An evolution of Magneton that is very rare and native to the Sinnoh region. Like its pre-evolution form, it's an Electric-Steel hybrid." The large pokemon shifts an eye to the gangsters. "I figured you Houndour could've at least beaten that."

"When the thing comes smashing in through a window and blows apart a store without blinking, well..." One of the Houndour trails off.

"I don't know what Mastermind was thinking, but it's gonna be fun teaching you street rats." The man almost chuckles, tossing his lab coat aside. Underneath he wore a tight black shirt that showed off his muscles along with a pair of camo-cargo pants.

"Oh great, _learning,_" DJ remarks, rolling his eyes. The rest of his group laughs.

"We're going to run the simulation again; hopefully you guys aren't going to get demoted to Magikarp-level." The man replies, getting the Porygon crowd and the Metagross to snigger.

"Magikarp-level?"

"Yea," one of the Porygon yells. "It's a level where the enemies are so weak, only Magikarp can't beat 'em!"

"You guys are one total-defeat away from falling to that." The man adds. "Kill at least one enemy, and you're safe from Magikarp-level. But, if I still think you fools aren't good enough, its right back to the streets where you belong."

JT gulps...that meant they would be easy prey for FUZE.

"Now, shall we try again?" The shiny-Metagross says as the door re-opens.

~!~

"So you're flying back to HQ?" Kara asked Ray. Ray, as a Latios, nods. They were in the garden and already the sky was starting to darken.

"Yeah. Might as well. I need to file a report and talk with M. Take care, okay?" Ray smiles before giving Kara a kiss. He starts levitating away, getting higher and higher into the air.

"See you soon!" Kara smiles.

Ray waves back, "See _you_ soon!" The Latios turns invisible and starts flying away. Below him he could see Altomare begin to light up as the sky got darker and darker.

_'Good day, got some things done,'_ Ray thought to himself, flying above the clouds. He meets the moon with a chuckle, admires the view for a second, and then explodes away; rocketing off towards HQ.

Back in the garden, Kara was walking up to Blaze, who was idling picking at his teeth with a small twig.

"Miss him already?" Blaze laughs.

Kara giggles, "Do you miss Sara?"

Blaze's eyes narrow and he spits out the twig. "That was low."

Kara laughs, "Come on, its time to go to sleep big boy."

Blaze scoffs, "Whatever _mom._" Just as finished, a large yawn wrenches itself free. The Typhlosion shrugs and stretches, then wanders off to a nice shady spot under a tree. He curls himself into a small hill and quickly begins snoring.

Kara smiles, swishing her tail back and forth, looking around before spotting Bianca on a branch sketching something. The Lucario silently leaps into the tree and sits beside the human. "Can I take a look at what you're drawing?" Kara asks.

Bianca was concentrating, but her face quickly relaxes with a smile while she turns to her new friend.

"Sure," She says, handing over the sketchbook to Kara, who laughs at the sight of a napping Typhlosion, lying as if he just fell out of the sky.

"That's definitely Blaze!" Kara laughs, her's blending with Bianca's.

"That's really good; I wish I could draw like that. I can't draw for my life!" Kara giggles, handing the sketchbook back.

"I've been drawing for my whole life; I guess you're pretty good at whatever you do for a long time. If you want, I can teach you some things," Bianca offers.

"I'd like that, we can try that someday." Kara watches as Bianca closes up the book before looking up into the blackening sky. The first few brave stars peer back from the otherwise endless black.

"It's beautiful," Kara sighs.

Bianca nods. "I'm so glad I get to be here with these two, I can see this every night if I wanted to," she says, starting to swing her legs back-and-forth while Kara's tail begins to swish.

"Poor Lucy, she always loves looking at the stars," Bianca laughs. Lucy was already asleep in another tree, same as her brother.

"I can see why. It's really nice here..." Kara says, letting a cool breeze blow through her fur and receptors.

Bianca takes off her beret and sighs. "You two should live here," Bianca says, "That way; Ray can be with his nephew and niece. It's great here; there are a lot of nice people in Altomare."

Kara closes her eyes, "We should." A moment of peace was between the two before Kara elbows Bianca. "So...any guy you like?" Kara asks, giggling.

Bianca laughs herself, "Not yet, I'm still waiting for the right guy. I've been through a couple people myself," Bianca answers.

Kara eyes widen, "Oh really?"

Bianca nods, "They were all good, but not great you know?"

"I know what you mean; I've been through other pokemon too."

Bianca looks over at the Lucario. "Why choose Ray?"

Kara laughs, "I didn't even know he was a Latios for a while. I went out with other guys to try and make him jealous since I had a huge crush on him."

"Looks like it worked!" Bianca says. Kara's tail continues to move back-and-forth, not even making a sound or missing a beat as she shifts into a more comfortable position.

"They were all great guys, don't get me wrong. It's just that I always had something for Ray."

"What other pokemon were they?"

"There was just two, a Gallade and a Gabite. The Gabite was actually pretty sweet for being a large shark, and the small jewels he'd give me every now and then weren't bad either. The Gallade knew I wanted Ray, so he helped by planning a date between me and Ray without either of us knowing it."

"Creative, and I assume his plan worked?"

Kara laughs, "I wouldn't be with Ray today if it wasn't for him. I was so shy back then; I never would've worked up the courage to ask Ray myself."

"How come?" Bianca asks. Kara's smile quickly disappears.

"Oh...well...I don't know. I just was." Kara smiles again.

Bianca could tell that this one was fake, and she looks back into the stars. "If you don't want to tell me, that's okay."

Kara's smile fades again. "Is it really that obvious?" she asks, her ears drooping.

"I'm just good at figuring people out, don't worry," Bianca replies. She watches the stars in silence before hearing a few mumbles from Kara.

"What?" she asks, turning to the pokemon. Kara lifts her head to look at Bianca, her face so pained that if Ray saw it from afar, he would come right back and kiss her to make it better.

"I'm an orphan. My mom was a Lucario while my dad was a human... that's why I have hair-like aura receptors and... well..." she pauses to gesture at her chest. "A group of people that hated pokemon/human relationships killed them and forced me onto the streets. I lived off scraps and stole for three years before I found Ray that one fateful day."

Kara's eyes shut as the memories come flooding back.

~!~

_The rain came down harsh, so harsh that it drastically dimmed the street lights. The downpour washed through the streets of the night, even filling the alleys with small rivers. A single pokemon was huddled under a garbage bag, shivering in the blistering cold. Hail even began to fall, slamming into the pokemon's small head under the bag._

_Within the seconds the blanket became cold and wet, but it didn't matter. The pokemon knew its place; it was going to die soon. A gunshot rang out and shouts were heard. It was enough to attract the attention of the Riolu, but it didn't even turn its head._

"_God...damnit!" A boy about sixteen exclaims as he staggers into the alley, grasping his arm and gritting his teeth. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt with black cargo pants. Blood was flowing from the wounds on his arm, but he didn't seem to notice as he slides to the ground and watches as some members from Team Magma run away._

_The boy slams his head on the wall and lets out a stream of curses that are washed away in the noise of the rain. The Riolu was nearby, watching the boy take out a medical kit and start to bandage himself in the cold._

"_If only...shit," The boy grumbles to himself. He puts the kit away and raises his healthy arm and his golden dagger. The boy was about to get back up, but then he noticed the shivering garbage bag in front of him. He leans forward and uses his dagger to open the bag. The street lights barely lit up the pokemon, but he could manage with what he saw._

_The girl Riolu was slightly large than the norm for her species, but horror swept onto his face as he noticed how malnourished she was._

"_You look miserable," he says. The Riolu didn't even flinch at the sight of the dagger. The boy pokes his head out of the alley to make sure Team Magma was gone before going back to the Riolu. He examines the pokemon, realizing that she was covered in infected cuts and nasty bruises. He couldn't help but shake his head at the sight._

"_You seriously look like you're ready to die," the boy said, moving closer to the small pokemon. Her dull red eyes stared into his golden ones, but otherwise she showed no interest. The boy shook his head and takes out his medical kit._

"_Here, try not to shiver a lot. I'm gonna patch you up and it won't do if I mess up, right?" He asks before gripping the dagger in his teeth and softly taking her hand first, cleaning and bandaging the wounds on her arm. He continued to work under the bag, his hands starting to shiver... it isn't long before his whole body begins to shiver and his teeth loudly chatter against his dagger.._

"_You're.. .helping... me?" The Riolu softly asks, barely loud enough for Ray to hear._

"_W-what do you want m-me to do, l-leave you?" Ray sniffs. He grits his teeth while chucking away the empty kit in frustration. He rubs his arms in an attempt to warm himself. "I don't have enough stuff to get all your wounds healed. Sorry," he says, looking out of the alley again out of paranoia._

"_Listen...I can help you if you want, but you have to come with me. Is that alright?" he asks. The Riolu was silent in the dim light, but the boy can see a pair of tears falling down her face._

"_You helped me..." she repeated._

"_Yeah, but you're not helping yourself, sitting down like this. Here, I can get you help. Can you move?" The Riolu didn't even respond, she just kept crying._

_The boy sighs, looking around and finding a piece of brown cloth nearby. It seemed clean enough and was actually repelling some of the water. He takes it and cuts a slit for his head, the quickly puts the improvised poncho on._

"_Come on, let's go." The boy says, picking up the Riolu and hiding her under the fabric. Her hands slowly grasp onto Ray's shirt as he stands up._

"_My name's Ray, what's yours?" The boy asks as he starts running. The Riolu was looking up at the boy as he ran, oblivious to the rain and hail hitting him in the face._

"_Ka...Kara."_

"_Kara? I like the name. Listen; just don't fall asleep on me, okay? Just stay awake, alright?" Ray asks._

_The Riolu remains silent, staring at Ray with her dull red eyes._

"_Why?..." Kara asks._

_Ray didn't hear her, just ahead is a Pokemonc Center; his destination. He hurries past the doors and skids to a stop at the front desk, quickly explaining everything to Nurse Joy. In a matter of seconds, Kara is in the emergency room._

"_Don't you worry sweetie, you'll be all better. Are you okay hun?" A Chansey asks._

_The Riolu started to cry again. "Tell Ray to stay...I don't want him to go." The Chansey nods and runs out of the room to get the boy._

_Kara slowly closes her eyes and whimpers...her wounds were starting to hurt. For the first time in a long time, she could feel her emotions again..._

_...then she let out a long, miserable, relieved howl._

~!~

"I'm so sorry," Bianca whispers, looking away.

Tears began to roll away from Kara's eyes. "Right when I decided to give up on living... he came and saved me." She says, looking at her friend. "You can be surprised at what a simple act of kindness can do... just look at me; I'm a result of that. I'm now mates with my savior... I'm the happiest I could ever be." Kara finishes, quickly wiping away her tears; a bit ashamed of them.

Bianca arms quickly go around Kara. "If it wasn't for people like Ray, Ray wouldn't be here either," she says, "My dad saved Raphael, and now he has Lucy and Josh. There's always light in the darkness." She adds, beginning to cry too.

Kara understood why and put her own arms around the girl... it was really sad, so many orphans lost in the world...

Meanwhile, Josh actually had an eye half-open. He was still awake and heard the whole conversation. He closed his eyes again, clenching his paws as tight as he could. He silently goes back to his own business and looks down at the paper in his paws; ignoring the creases that its previous folding had caused. It read:

_Dear Blood Relative,_

_Whoever you are, I'm glad that this letter got to you. I knew in my head I was going to die one day; so I asked my friend Cyphrus if he could deliver this note to you despite him telling me that I wasn't going to die. Mom, Dad, Uncle, Aunt, Grandpa, Grandma, Sister, Brother, Cousin, whoever you are, remember me. If you get this, I'm probably dead. I died for a good cause, you might have never been proud of me since I ended up in that orphanage. Even so, just keep me in your head. I tried to find you, but I guess I never did 'cause of the restrictions of this god-forsaken war. If Cyphrus is still there when you read this letter, ask him if he found his sister. Give him a hug for me; telling him everything's going to be okay and to keep looking if his sister is still missing. Well, my name is Shawn Bennueto, soldier of the Wardog Elite Youth Division of Aeonia. God bless you, whoever you are._

Josh sighs while folding the paper back up and hiding it in his fur. He shuts his eyes as the memory of how the boy valiantly gave up his life to protect him. Somehow, despite his fitful mind, he managed to fall asleep.

~!~

_Lucy's gold eyes look around, but all she can see around her is a white void; stretching onward into infinity. Yet, at the same time, it looked as though the whiteness was closer than that. Even weirder is that these white expanses almost looked as though they were undulating and pulsing... it was a little creepy._

'Where am I? What happened to the garden?'

"_Latias?"_

_Lucy spins around to the look at where the voice came from, finding a teen boy sitting down. He wore green futuristic armor, but was scratched up and dirty. His helmet hid his hair, but Lucy immediately knew who he was._

"_Ash?!?" She exclaims, flying over to look at him. She was beyond happy first, but quickly became horrified at the sight of blood on his armor. What also seemed to appear from nowhere is the sniper rifle in his hand's death grip._

_Lucy stopped for a second, but hurries over with tears in her face. "What happened?!?"_

"_Latias, I'm so tired." Ash groans, seemingly oblivious to her words. "I don't want to be here."_ _From his pose it looked as if he was sitting up against a wall._

_Lucy floats a little closer before hugging the boy. Once they separate, the pure white on her chest is stained crimson._

"_Ash, you look..."_

"_Terrible. I know. I've been fighting for the whole day," Ash finishes. Lucy shakes her head,_

"_No...your eyes..." Ash looks up at Lucy with hollow black eyes, the bags underneath contributing to the eerie look._

"_This? Ha...you're looking at the eyes of a killer now Latias." Ash then turns away, prompting Latias to come closer._

"_Don't, please. I can't look at you." Ash adds, tears forming in his own eyes. He just couldn't stand the teary face looking back at him._

"_Ash, its me, Latias. Please, I want to see you." She softly coos, resting a claw to Ash's cheek and turning him back to her. He turns and looks in the other direction._

"_I killed so many people already. I'm nothing but a murderer. I don't even know why anymore..." Ash's mumblings trail off while his grip on the firearm gets tighter._

"_Ash, let it go. Please." Latias begs as she puts a paw on his hand. Ash releases the sniper and turns his death grip on Lucy with a hug._

_Lucy quickly returns it, holding onto him just as tightly and wiping her tears on his cheek._

"_Ash, why'd you leave?" Lucy asks. Ash lets go and leans back to look her in the face._

"_I have to get stronger; I need to be stronger so that I can protect the people I care about."_

"_Then get stronger and come back home...come back to Altomare."_

_Ash sighs, "Okay."_

"_No. Don't just say 'okay.' Come home safe, promise?" Lucy asks as she extended her smallest claw. Ash smiles at her before extending his pinky. His finger was larger than her claws, but he wraps it around hers anyway._

"_I promise. Latias, I have to go okay? Pray for me," Ash says, giving a faint smile._

_Lucy watches in fright as Ash starts to fade away. "Wait Ash!" she exclaims trying to grab hold of him, but her paws just go through empty air. Her tears poured out of her eyes, this was too familiar for her._

"_Good-bye Latias." Then he disappears. Latias stares in disbelief before beginning to cry her heart out._

"_NO! ASH! Don't leave! Please! NO! Ash, I love you! Come back!" she yells, before biting onto her lip. Then she rears her head back with shut eyes and screams out to the heavens, "ASH! COME BACK!"_

"Latias!"_ a new voice exclaims, getting her to open her eyes._

~!~

"Lucy! _LATIAS!"_ Josh yells, shaking his sister.

She wakes up with a scream, her down soaked in tears. She was surrounded by everyone minus Blaze, all giving her a worried look. She was hyperventilating, staring at everybody before closing her eyes and whimpering.

"I'm sorry..."

"Lucy, are you okay?" Josh asks, floating a little closer.

She takes a deep breath before replying. "It was just a nightmare," Lucy sniffles, opening her eyes, "I'll be okay, thanks."

"Are you sure?!? There's blood all over you!"

~!~

The two Zangoose glance at the door when it knocks, keeping their arms crossed.

"Come in," The man absently grunts.

Ray steps in, occupying his human form. He stops and salutes. "Hey Bradley."

The man, Bradley, stops polishing his gold name-stand. He smiles at the boy while putting it back on his desk. "Always the informal, straight-type of guy." Bradley chuckles, "Welcome Ray."

Ray stops his salute and walks forward, shifting back into a Latios.

"How's the honeymoon?" He asks, getting Ray to gulp.

"You knew?"

Bradley laughs. "Mastermind did."

Ray smiles. "Cut that mastermind crap you pervert," Ray jokes, speaking human despite being a large dragon.

"He told me the two of you are mates now, when's the marriage?" Bradley asks.

The two Zangoose smirk to one another, they were going to get plenty of mileage out of this. "Can we come?" One of them says, giving the Latios a toothy grin.

Ray turns around and smiles, "Sure, you two look the same, as always." He turns back to the human. "Does 'M' know about...?" Ray trails off, waiting for Bradley to reply.

He nods. "Yes, he knows everything the minute you stepped in this room."

Ray gives Bradley a scowl, "I hate it when he does that; normally you can feel when someone's intruding on your mind. How is he?"

"_I'm doing fine Ray, just a bit bored."_ Mastermind's voice says, echoing inside Ray's head. _"Do try to get your reports turned in on-time from now on."_

Ray smiles. "I missed that voice. Well, should probably go make the report..." he turns and heads for the door. Just as he reaches it, he stops and says, "Hey...by any chance would you know of someone named... uhh... Ash Ketchum?"

"_Ash Ketchum?!"_ Mastermind's voice booms, getting the other four to jump. _"It... rings a few bells. Finish your report and I'll tell you about him." _he finishes, back to his normal, calm tone.

"Is he a good kid?"

"_...a bit dense, rash, and stubborn as a Rhyhorn; but yes, he's a good kid."_

"That's all I really needed." Ray replies, leaving.

Once the door shuts, Bradley says aloud, "Never heard you that distressed."

"_Never thought I'd hear that name again."_

~!~

CJ: Umm...DB's still off with his stories, so I guess I'll have to handle the farewells. So, who exactly is Mastermind? Or this equally mysterious Shadohm? To find out, you'll have to-

(cut off as a weird flaming projectile flies by overhead)

CJ: Umm...

DB: Shesh, alright alright! Settle down!

CJ: You okay? Your hair's on fire.

DB: It happens when you work with some as volatile as Blaze. Eh, not _your_ Blaze-

CJ: The feline one?

(DB nods, patting out the fire)

CJ: Got'cha. You want to do the honors?

DB: Sure...so, to answer those mysteries and many others, you'll just have to wait and read the next chapters! 'Till then!


	7. Intensity

"_Black hearted evil_

_Brave hearted hero_

_I am, all I am, all I am!"_

DB: Oy! Would you turn that down?

CJ: (turns off the stereo) What's got you so ticked? Isn't your work going okay?

DB: Almost. I just can't get this one scene to work and that song is not a match for the mood!

CJ: I thought...

DB: Ah ah ah! This is something you _haven't_ seen yet! Just, do the intro, I need to get back to work.

CJ: (shrugs) Well, anyway, this is the next chapter for Rays, and that means more mysteries, more action, and more fun. Enjoy!

**Chapter 6 Intensity**

_*Ahh...hahhh...ahh..hahhh...*_

"_Increase the sedative; this one's a fiery one."_

"_This is not the time for puns doctor. Number 81923 has survived its third battle while in its second stage of evolution. It has survived around thirty five battles by now; all of them were of different elements in the battle arena, excluding the Fire-type battle it just partook in."_

"_Yes, he's also fond of our friend, number 84714."_

"_Both of them are quite intriguing. Never have we ever acquried such powerful pokemon. 84714's genetic capabilities are far beyond what we can fathom doctor. In addition to 84174, 81923's flames are virtually unquenchable. He brought the other Fire-type test subjects to their knees with his own flames."_

_*Growl*_

"_Ah, 81923. How nice of you to join our little conversation."_

_*Grrrr*_

"_I'm sorry 81923, it's not time for your next battle. Go back to sleep."_

_*Whirr...KA-CHAK*_

_*Whine*_

"_Doctor, I'm very concerned about numbers 81923 and 84714. They are both strong enough to break free from our base of operations."_

"_Well, that is if they cooperate with each other of course. All we need to do is put them both in a cage and see who wins the battle."_

"_A cruel way to decide which is stronger, is it not?"_

"_Hah, cruel? Look at us my friend, we're nothing but scientists torturing pokemon and pitting them in battle. These two are no different."_

"_Yes doctor."_

"_Number 81923...the ultimate flame pokemon might just be born here in this lab. Maybe we should make our lives easier and give our friend a name."_

"_Doctor, last time we gave a pokemon a name, it died the next day. It's not lucky to give them names now."_

"_Ah, yes I remember our little Tyranitar. Sad, our whole team was very confident in that pokemon."_

"_Doctor, did you forget who it was that killed him?"_

"_How can I forget? The monster that tore him to shreds is lying on the table in front of me."_

"_These two specimens are growing stronger with every battle. Who knows what they'll be capable of later on?"_

"_Exactly why we should name them. Let's start with number 84714. Hmm...Let's see...Maria. Fitting for a female."_

"_And number 81923?"_

"_Number 81923...We shall call him-"_

_*ROOOAAAAR!*_

"_Doctor! The sedatives...!"_

"_Hmm...like a fire that can't be doused. Number 81923, can you hear me?"_

_*Grrrr*_

"_I'll take that as a yes. Number 81923, your name shall be..."_

~!~

"Blaze?" asks Kara's voice. The Typhlosion groggily opens his eyes with a snorty growl.

"Ugh...what time is it?"

"You slept right through breakfast. It's almost lunchtime now," Kara answers, squatting down near him and gently poking at the Typhlosion with a harmless twig. "Never known you to sleep _this _late."

"Where's Ray?" Blaze asks while rolling over and standing up; Kara simply stands.

"He's sleeping; got back at around four in the morning. Now come on, I have something to tell you about our boy Ash Ketchum," Kara answers, tugging at the larger pokemon. The fiery pokemon stretches and yawns, slowly following the Lucario towards the entrance to Lorenzo's.

"What's the whole deal with that human anyway?"

"Well..." Kara pulls a folded up piece of paper from a pocket in her vest, unfolds it, then reads aloud; "Ash Ketchum, trainer from Pallet Town, involved in the incident with Mewtwo and Mew, chosen one of the Orange Islands where he met the three legendary birds plus Lugia. He also met one of the three 'dogs' as well as time traveled with Celebi, met the very two Guardians of Altomare...and also claims to have seen Ho-oh after starting his journey, but nobody's been able to confirm it."

Blaze's eyes widen. "Wait...what?"

"Its true, with his luck he might've even met Arceus one day had he not gone with that Cyphrus kid." Kara defends, "Also, we traced back his ancestry through a blood sample acquired while he was here. He's a descendent of Aaron," Kara finishes, folding the paper back up and putting it away.

"You mean _The_ Aaron? Wait, hold up...he's the chosen one, a descendent of Aaron, sheesh he really could ha...what?" Blaze asks, noticing that Kara was starting to giggle.

"Our Ash boy is pretty important after all."

Blaze rubs at his temples and closes his eyes. "This is too much for my head take in after just waking up."

Kara rests a caring paw on the Fire-type's shoulder. "Go wash up, I'll talk to you after lunch." she smiles before leaping up to a nearby tree. "Oh! And Maria says hello!" she yells down before leaping over the wall of the garden and out of sight.

Blaze watches where she was and chuckles out a smile. "Haven't seen that firecracker in a while." he says to himself while walking over to the fountain.

_'This place needs a lava pool and it'll be perfect! Though, that'd probably ruin the rest of the garden...'_ Blaze thought, glancing down at his reflection in the clean, clear water. He notices that his reflection changed itself into a frown.

"Like a fire that can't be doused huh?" He asks aloud.

"_Of course, you were made that way 81923,"_ says a voice echoing in his head. It sounds a lot like Blaze's, but seemed huskier... more dark.

"Shut up. I can never get rid of you can I?" Blaze asks aloud, knowing full well where and whose voice this was.

The dark voice releases a roaring laugh. _"Very funny _Blaze," it says, mocking his name, _"I'm pretty surprised that you can actually resist most of my influence. Not bad for a weak runt like you."_

Blaze refuses to be infuriated by his own voice; sighing and splashing cold water from the fountain into his face. He shivers as it seeps into his fur and runs down his body.

"Get out of my head Inferno."

"_I'm never gonna leave your head, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life. Might as well hand over your wife to the _real_ person that you are."_

The water in Blaze's fur quickly evaporates as the Typhlosion growls and raises his body heat.

"You're not the real me. This is _my_ body."

"_Oh? Am I not? Now tell me, who kept you alive for this long? Who gave you your fighting reactions and instinct? Who helped you survive?"_ The voice roars.

Blaze clenches his fists, but quickly releases them and looks at the Soul Dew in the middle of the fountain. His eyes narrow.

"You may have given me power and instinct, but we wouldn't have gotten out of that lab without _me._ We wouldn't have survived at least half the battles without my mind and skill. Even the doctors said that our power was a power of _two_ Typhlosion if not ten times that."

The voice releases a deep, angry growl.

"We wouldn't have made a friend like Maria, you wouldn't have been able to see the true beauty of what was outside that cage. Admit it Inferno, I am the true Typhlosion that is standing in front of this fountain."

A brief second passes before Blaze's reflection gives him a dark smirk and begins to laugh. It was still a Typhlosion, but seemed like an entirely different one...most notable were its sinister green eyes instead of Blaze's normal red ones.

"_Listen to yourself, you got too soft. But I have to admit, you have a strong mind. I'll leave you at that Blaze. I'll be the beast under your skin; you know you can't live without me."_ The reflection stops laughing and gives Blaze a psychotic look, like it was ready to leap out of the fountain and cut him in two. _"When the time comes, I'll assume my rightful place as the owner of this body my brother!"_

Blaze bares his teeth and slashes through the water. _**"YOU ARE NOT MY BROTHER!"**_he roars while his back bursts into flame. He watches as the reflection re-appears, showing only the angry Typhlosion looming over the fountain. It takes him a second to realize what was happening and calm down; but his own reflection caused him to clench his teeth. Inferno was right, he couldn't live a day without him. In fact, the very reflection he was looking at looked more like-

Blaze tears his vision away and clutches his head.

_'No. I am not like him. I'm different..._

_'...I've changed.'_

Blaze relaxes his tense muscles and puts out his flames, then looks into his paws. For an instant, he could see them stained with blood and the garden replaced with a dark, gore-filled arena.

He quickly leans over and dunks his head into the cold waters of the fountain, holds still for a second or two, then resurfaces; telling himself the water running down his face was from the fountain and not his eyes.

He re-opens his eyes and looks at the Soul Dew, noting its perfect form and color. He gives it an envious stare before stomping off towards Lorenzo's, muttering "Lucky, I wish I was that pure," as he went.

~!~

"Ray? Ra-ay," Kara giggles while slipping under the blankets beside her snoring fiance. He groans while rolling onto his side; facing away from the canine. The sun, pouring in from the windows, shines off the snoring blue-and-white dragon.

"Just five more minutes..." he slurs in between his snores.

Kara grins and slips her arms around him, gently nibbling on his ear. He sputters a little while his snores become lighter, then shivers when Kara started to teasingly lick his ear too.

"Okay, okay... I'm up." Ray grumbles, his golden eyes forcing themselves halfway open.

Kara stops her antics and leans over to kiss his cheek.

"_Morning..."_ His voice says in her head.

"_Good morning,"_ Kara thinks back. She lets go as the dragon swings his free wing and blows the blankets off them.

Ray floats out of the bed, deeply yawns and stretches a kink out of his neck.

"After you wash up, we can have lunch at Lorenzo's. See you soon," She says, smiling a toothy grin at him. The Lucario walks out of the room and the sound of the apartment door shutting is heard.

"That's the first time she's woken up before I have." Ray chuckles before floating to the sliding door, opening it and camouflaging himself before rocketing out of the apartment.

The edges of the city blur into a single mass as he flies away from the city he loves; becoming visible once he's over the open ocean. The Latios flips over before plunging into the water, spinning around and causing a small whirlpool to form before re-emerging. He gives a refreshed shout and flies above the clouds, flipping himself over to dry off in the sun and warm up.

"Ahh...this is better than a shower! Plenty off room to stretch out!" Ray says aloud, flipping over again once his underside was dry. He thinks about his words then laughs, "Then again, a shower with Kara isn't that bad either!"

He laughs a little more before flying back to Altomare, his body dissolving away into a faint haze and stomach growling for food.

~!~

"Thanks for letting me use your fireplace Mr. Lorenzo," Blaze says. He made sure that his fur was free of ash and small wood particles before climbing out of it.

"Oh it's no problem. You actually taught me how to clean a fire pokemon! We don't have many of them in Altomare!" Lorenzo laughs, watching the large pokemon exit the fireplace from a fire cleaning. Instead of washing their fur, which is incredibly uncomfortable and dangerous for some fire pokemon, they seek out a safe area when they can ignite themselves and burn away anything dirty on them. Fireplaces are a convenient place for them since they are already designed to handle fires.

"That's so cool," Josh remarks in his human form. He and his sister were eating inside today, disguising as humans.

Blaze smirks as he rests a paw on his plate and leaves it there for a minute. He then places a cold potato on the plate, grinning as the potato instantly cooks from all the heat that was radiating from it.

Once he makes sure his body cooled enough from the fire cleaning to be safe, he sits at the table and proceeds to start gnawing at his food.

"Careful Blaze, you might end up melting the plate one day," Ray says, walking in as a human.

The whole group converses about their previous days while eating, but Lucy was strangely quiet.

"Something wrong Lucy?" Ray asks. She looks up, then turns away.

"I have to ask you something after lunch Uncle Ray." The others all glance at Ray in verying degrees of seriousness. Ray shrugs it off.

"Okay, sure," Ray says, finishing off his own baked potato. He glances over to her plate and finds that she hadn't eaten anything...she hadn't even touched her silverware.

"You should probably eat, we're doing our first combat exercise today," Ray remarks.

"I'm not that hungry..."

Ray's eyes narrow as he gets up. He walks over and pulls her out of her chair. "Let's talk now," he says, only waiting for her to nod before leading her into the garden.

~!~

"Uncle Ray, is it possible to..." She stops, "meet someone in a dream like you'd meet them in real life?" Lucy asks, still in her human form as she and her uncle walk towards the Soul Dew.

Ray gives her a puzzled expression, "Want to give an example?"

Lucy puts her hands together. "W-well...last night, I had a dream that I met Ash. He looked older and was in some kind of armor. We hugged each other before he disappeared, but there was blood on his armor and when I woke up there was blood on my body," she explains.

Ray stops dead in his tracks, giving his niece a serious look. He grabs her hand and pulls her to the Soul Dew. After reaching in and touching it, he closes his eyes. "Did he look like this?"

The area around them warps out of view as they enter a sort of staticy form of sight-sharing. It took Lucy a few seconds to realize who she was looking at, but she finally recognizes Ash lying prone atop an abandoned building; firing his sniper rifle at whatever was below and out of sight. In a brief flash of lightening, his face becomes visible and confirms what Lucy guessed.

"Y-yes!" She exclaims, watching as kept firing his rifle. The vision ends and the garden returns; bringing back Ray and the Soul Dew.

He removes his hand from the water and looks back at his niece.

"Lucy, you've done something way more advanced than sight-sharing. You both physically met each other in your dreams."

Lucy's eyes grow wide. "You mean..."

Ray nods, "That blood that you had, it's proof of the exchange with Ash. That dream was more than a dream."

"But...does Ash know that?"

"Of course not!"

"Then...what do I do when I see him?"

"I don't know," Ray says as he walks up to his niece, then puts a hand on her head and playfully ruffles her hair. "But I'm sure _you'll_ know." He smiles.

Lucy returns it, her bubbly personality quickly returning.

Ray feels something vibrate in his pocket and removes his communicator to find a text from Blaze waiting for him. He reads it as his expression quickly changes into one of concern.

**It happened again. Permission to RTB?**

Ray quickly hits reply and types the following message;

**Permission granted. Say hi to Sara for me, get some rest.**

A few seconds pass before he gets a reply.

**Thanks. Will do.**

"Uncle Ray? Who was that?" Lucy asks. Ray gives her a fake smirk,

"Blaze. He wants to check up on his wife, so I'm giving him the day off."

Lucy smiles, "Blaze is such a fun guy, I hope he can live here with us one day...will you live with us too Uncle Ray?"

Ray's smirk turns into a gentle smile. "Sure. Why not?" He asks, drawing her into a hug. The tender moment is interrupted when her stomach lets out a cranky growl.

"Go on, get something to eat." Ray laughs, letting go of a slightly pink Lucy. She turns around to leave, but glances back over her shoulder.

"Thanks Uncle Ray!" She exclaims before running towards the door, then flying along in her Latias form.

Ray's smile changes into a frown as he looks back at the Soul Dew, and changes into a Latios before reaching in and resting a clawed paw to it. His eyes start to glow as the orb shares what it saw this morning...just a Typhlosion talking to himself.

Ray shuts his eyes and retracts his paw. "I wonder when..." he mutters before shaking his head.

~!~

"JT!" DJ yells, pulling the trigger of his pistol. It recoiled, making the same noise its real counterpart would make. He shot a man with a shotgun, knocking him backwards. The man never met the floor though; he just disintegrated into blue pixels which faded away.

"Thanks DJ!" The younger boy yells back. JT would've taken a virtual shotgun blast to his back had DJ's reaction been any slower. The two were inside a factory/warehouse area, taking cover behind a cluster of empty oil barrels. The rest of their team was already taken out, along with every Houndour save Iris and Scar.

"Iris! Scar!" DJ bellows, "Get back here!" The two dogs end their torrent of fire on some Ariados, but wait to make sure the bugs vaporize into blue pixels before returning to their trainers. "We're out of ammo; we're counting on you two!"

Scar gave DJ a smirk, "You humans and your ammunition, you can count on us!" The two dogs howl a war-cry before lunging towards a Manectric.

"Come on DJ, let's grab some other guns," JT advises, getting a nod from his friend in agreement. DJ quickly scrambles out to where shotgun-man was and finds his weapon lying on the ground. He quickly picks up the weapon and checks the magazine; finding it fully loaded.

"Alright, we've got eight shells in here," DJ announces, sliding the magazine back in and pumping the shotgun. "This oughta give our Houndour some help." he finishes with a big grin, "We're back in business!"

JT grins as well and picks up an abandoned crowbar. He smacks it against his hand, finds it nice and sturdy, then rests it to his shoulder.

"What was the mission again?" DJ asks, getting ready to rush out with his pal.

"Survive as long as possible," JT replies, getting his buddy to nod.

"Oh yeah," He answers, popping up and pulling the trigger of the shotgun, smirking as the spread of bullets takes out two humans and a Raichu.

The smirk is short lived as one of the large garage doors lifts open to allow the next swarm of enemies in; another mix of pokemon and humans.

Iris and Scar return to their partners, growling at their new enemies.

"Oh give me a break!" DJ yells, firing off two more shots. Both are complete misses as the enemies dive for cover.

Scar bounds out from cover and lunges at a Spearow, sinking his teeth into the bird's neck. The small bird proves stubborn, however, as it manages to fly up into the air with the dog still hanging from it. The virtual humans take aim and shoot them both out of the sky.

"Scar!" DJ yells before gritting his teeth, "Bastards!" In a fit of rage, DJ fires off his remaining rounds into the crowd, taking out a few but one of his missed targets shoots back. DJ takes a bolt to the chest, grunts, and then dissolves into particles.

"Not good," JT says, ducking back behind the oil barrels. Iris leans up against him, listening to the cautiously approaching footsteps. At least the virtual enemies didn't know that he didn't have a firearm.

"What do we do now JT?" the pokemon nervously asks.

"Survive!" He yells, rushing to a nearby pipe and slamming it with the sharp end of his crowbar.

The humans and pokemon begin attacking the sudden, massive steam cloud; providing cover fire for the Glaceon and Persian that ran in. Pitiful whines from the cloud quickly follow as blue pixels come flying out.

Iris growls before launching a flamethrower out of the cloud; not aiming at all, but hoping she'd hit something. She glances over and, through the occasional break in the fog, can see JT looking for a better weapon.

"Hurry!" she exclaims, only to turn back and see a Luxray pounce on her then sink its teeth into her neck. She disappears a second later.

JT turns around in time to see his Houndour fall apart and the Luxray get shrouded in the fog. _'Great...those things have X-ray vision...'_ He nervously thinks. Luckily though, the enemy pokemon gave itself away by using Spark; a move that caused its body to glow with electricity.

The human rolls out of the way of the tackle, then swings his crowbar around and slams the creature in the back of its skull; destroying it instantly.

"Gotcha you sonuva-" JT's words end as a fuzzy feeling rushes over him. He accidentally rolled out of the fog and took several shots to his side; enough to 'kill' him. He tumbles forward, but instead of landing on hard concrete, he lands on something much softer. He blinks and groans a little before getting up; finding himself in the computer room.

The muscular man nods his head. "Not bad." He praises, ignoring the sore Porygon evolutions behind him. "You guys advanced to a higher level faster than I thought. We'll stop for lunch with this; good work."

The rest of the Hell Hounds, the name that DJ created for their gang, yelp and cheer for JT as they walk towards the door. "Nice crowbar action there," DJ says, patting his friend on the shoulder.

"Finally, a human with courage," Scar sarcastically laughs.

"Good job JT," Iris happily says, nuzzling the side of his leg as the group heads for the elevator.

JT can only sheepishly laugh, "Aww, come on guys, I didn't do that great."

The Hell Hounds enter the elevator and hit the button to go back to the barracks. The whole group converses and laughs about both the highs of the survival match and the mistakes that were made.

The man in the operating room smirks at the closing elevator doors. "Just like you said M, they've got potential."

"_Thanks for trusting me on the one Ed; you did well training them."_

"No problem M, that's what I do. I'm thinking about letting 'em use live ammo in their next practice. So...what's for lunch?"

~!~

"Alright, before we go to sword practice, we'll need to learn and engage in close combat; both as human and pokemon." Ray instructs. His sheathed sword had its tip resting in the earth and his hands were resting on the end of its hilt; it looked more like a gentleman's cane than a weapon right now.

The two younger Latis and sitting in front of him as humans, both with a determined expression.

"Since you two will spend most of your time as humans outside of the garden, we'll spend today on human hand-to-hand combat skills. Okay, first off; you guys are going to run four times around the garden using that tree," he stops to gesture at the tree that they slept in last night, "as your lap marker. After four laps, come right back here, and I do not want to see either of you walk one step. Nothing but run."

The two nod and start running, but at a faster pace than Ray expected.

"I don't want either of you to stop, so go at a good pace!" he calls. The two slow down a little, and then have trouble with their legs.

"This is to get you used to human legs. Don't be surprised if your heart rate increases and your breathing gets more ragged." Ray explains, watching them go around the garden.

Kara approaches Ray from behind and stands beside him. "You're going to need my help for this, right?"

"Of course, I can't do this without a fighting pokemon to help. Besides, you know more about hand-to-hand combat than I do," Ray answers, not turning to look at her.

Eventually Josh and Lucy return, leaning over and grabbing their knees while breathing hard.

"Tired?" The two nod. "Good. It means that you guys were trying." Ray says, "Now I want you to lie down, but hold yourselves up off the ground."

The younger Latis take a second to catch their breath before doing what he says, but leaving either their bottoms or backs poking up into the air.

"Make your whole body flat. Move your feet back as far as they can go. Once they won't go any further, you're in the right position."

Lucy and Josh quickly correct themselves.

"Alrighty. Now, I want you guys to lower yourselves as close to the ground as you can without touching it. Then, push yourselves back up to this position. That's one push up."

The two do as he says and easily perform a push up.

"Good. Now I want you two to do twenty push-ups. Do them while looking at me; don't look elsewhere. Ready? Go."

Josh and Lucy begin doing their push ups, both going at their own speed. They do well at first, but around ten they start to struggle with continuing."

"Come on, you guys can push up you own body weight twenty times, can't you?" Ray asks, squatting down while looking at them.

After Lucy's twelfth push-up, she collapses onto the ground; her arms too tired to go on. Arm strength just isn't a Lati's forte.

"Come on Lucy, you can do it." Josh cheers, "Just a few more." He does all twenty and quickly lets himself fall into the grass. Lucy struggles back up and does one more before collapsing again.

"Well, for your first time you guys did better than I did. From now on however, you two will do simultaneously and in synch. If one of you falls or stops, both of you will start over from zero." Ray instructs, "You both need to learn to carry each other's burdens as siblings, understand?"

Josh and Lucy nod at him before standing up.

Ray gives a quick gesture at their clothes. "Change into something more fitting for combat practice before we continue."

The two look at each other before glowing brightly. After the light dies down, both are in much lighter clothes; Josh's vest and T-shirt changing into a black undershirt and his jeans into ocean-blue cargo pants. Lucy's white tank top remained, but her skirt morphed into a pair of red sweat pants.

Ray shrugs, "Better. Now, let's start with a simple punch." Kara and Ray face each other as Ray holds up a small, punching-bag like object. He nods and Kara nails it perfectly center with a single blow."

"See how she's putting her whole body into it?" Ray asks as Kara slams the target again, "She brings back her fist, then hits the target. This is the usual punch and is sure to help out a lot. With enough momentum or built-up strength, you can knock someone out with just one punch and end a fight before it can even start." He explains before picking up another target and tossing it to Kara.

"Now, hit the target with your right five times, then switch to your left and repeat. Grazing blows don't count; you've got to hit it at least somewhat dead-on. Josh, you're with me; Lucy you work with Kara."

Josh nods before bringing back his hand and slamming the target with all he had.

"Good," Ray praises, "But watch your balance. You put too much energy into your fist, and you'll stumble forward and become vulnerable to a counter."

Meanwhile Lucy reared back her fist before throwing it, but barely hits.

"Lucy, make sure you hit the target dead on," Kara gently corrects, "A strong blow that misses is morse than weak one that hits."

"Oh, forgot to mention; make sure you exhale a little while you punch. It's to expel energy through your body and into your attack," Ray adds. "Now, let's try this again!"

Josh and Lucy use their new advice and well and quickly begin throwing master punches. Gradually they move to kicks, then elbows, knees, and many others over the course of an hour.

Kara nods once the two are at a satisfactory level, and stop their training. "Okay, now. You guys are going to memorize a form that I created." Kara explains, "It's a simple set of six repeating moves. Just watch me and do what I do."

Ray seems to grin as he holds his target in front of the pokemon. She punches the dummy with her left hand, then her right, and then spins around to roundhouse kick it with her right leg. Just after hitting the target with her foot, she stops and brings it back across; striking the target again. The second Kara's right foot touches the ground, her left one springs up and does the same that its partner did.

Kara stops the shaking target before performing the same combo again; this time going a little slower so Josh and Lucy can easily see it.

"Easy, you guys will know this by heart after ten minutes." Kara says, stopping her demonstration.

The two take turns giving Kara's combo a go; quickly understanding just how to balance their body and control their blows so they don't topple over.

"We have fast learners," Kara whispers to Ray, watching as Lucy perfectly mimics her soon-to-be aunt.

"I know. They've already exceeded my expectations. We have a gifted niece and a gifted nephew in front of us," Ray replies, smiling.

~!~

"This is Shadohm. We've gathered near the crime scene investigation building." The small cloaked figure says into his communicator. "Standing by to engage."

"_Good. After this, we can blame the other authority branches and cause chaos throughout the Altomarian government. This shouldn't be too difficult; our investigators will help point the blame. Just remember to make it look like official pokemon did the work. You are given permission to proceed."_

The small figure puts his communicator away and nods to another cloaked FUZE member. He returns the nod before lowering his head. The group of FUZE members fades into hazes and reappears on the roof of a nearby building. Some of them lower their heads to look through the skylight at the men and women inside.

"Almost seems like a waste, doesn't it?" Shadohm asks, "Ready Ephesus?"

The hooded man beside him, and easily the biggest in the group, pounds his fists together.

"I thought you knew me better than that." He laughs before punching through the glass and leaping in. His sheer bulk lands on and crushes a table; the shockwave knocking away several officers.

As he charges off to deliver a crippling blow to another officer, the rest of the FUZE agents land inside. One quickly runs off to fulfill his assignment, and Shadohm notices an officer training a pistol on the fleeing FUZE agent. A Thunderbolt erupts from beneath his hood and slams the man into a wall; reducing him to a crumpled, twitching mass.

Another hooded figure beside Shadohm quickly rushes toward another officer and slashes him with the sharp blades attached to the sides of his cloak sleeves. The man screams before falling to the floor, bleeding from the single gash across his chest.

One of the officers tries using a baton, but another large FUZE member rips it from his hand and beats him to death with his own weapon. Within seconds the crowd of officers falls to various injuries; burns, shocks, broken bones, or slash marks.

Once satisfied with the level of damage in the room; they all charge down another hallway, meeting up with the one who left before.

"Mission accomplished?" Shadohm asks, leading the charge down the hallway.

The figure nods, "The security feed to that room was erased and the guards there won't remember a thing."

Shadohm nods before blasting a Thunderbolt down the hall and blowing apart the door in their way. The group of seven barge into the CSI-head's office; finding him pinned to the wall behind one of the doors.

Shadohm walks over to the bald man, watching him look on in terror.

"Y-you're-!"

"Your worst nightmare," Shadohm finishes, extending a hand from beneath his cloak and forming a Shadow Ball in its palm.

"Sweet dreams."

~!~

Two hours after the first lesson...

"Hyah!" Josh yells throwing out a punch. Lucy quickly steps back and forms and 'X' with both of her arms; catching Josh's fist in the crook of the 'X'.

She quickly pushes his arm up to the sky, then retracts her arms and nails Josh in the gut while he was open.

Josh gasps as the wind gets knocked out of him, the groans as Lucy roundhouses Josh in the face and knocks him on his side. He quickly springs back up as Lucy throws another roundhouse kick; but this time he grabs her leg and gives her a tug, knocking the girl off balance. To finish his counter, Josh slams the top of his head into the bottom of her jaw.

Lucy stumbles back, dizzy from the hit but unharmed. "You alright sis?" Josh asks; walking over in concern for his sister. She quickly answers with a punch to the face.

He falls backward and groans, then laughs as Lucy topples forward and lands on him. "Better than ever big brother," she laughs before rolling off him; both gasping for air.

"Alright you two, that's enough sparring." Ray laughs, placing his hands behind his head. They look up and find clouds gathering. "Huh, looks like it's going to rain for once."

Kara glances up too, from her spot beside one of the ponds.

"Before the rain starts, I want you two to have one more fight." Ray instructs.

Josh and Lucy nod before getting up and into a fighting stance, facing each other.

Ray smirks, "But this time, I want you guys to work together and try stopping me."

The two looks over at him, watching as he tosses his sword to Kara, who catches it perfectly without so much as a flinch, and then he grins and cracks his knuckles.

"Bring it you two."

Josh and Lucy both spin to face Ray and wait for him to drop into his stance before they charge. Lucy aiming for his head with a side-kick and Josh going for Ray's side with a roundhouse

Ray doesn't so much as blink as he blocks both attacks; his right hand grabbing Lucy's sneaker and left hand clasping Josh's ankle. Even though his arms were crossed, Ray still summons all of his strength with a yell and pulls both younger fighters towards each other.

They only avoid a collision when Lucy manages to flip herself above Josh; but the two are still sent flying away as Ray quickly changes into a throw. Lucy goes crashing to the ground, but Josh manages to roll and not only absorb the energy, but land in a crouching stance.

Once his balance returns, Josh runs up to and throws a punch at Ray; who dodges by simply leaning backwards. Josh's second blow is caught by Ray, and with a twist of the older Latios' torso; Josh gets thrown again, this time at his sister.

Lucy, who had just gotten to her feet, manages to catch Josh and help him upright; but can't react in time when they see Ray in the air just above them; swinging his legs around for a drop-kick.

The two younger dragons are both knocked to their backs, and unable to do anything as Ray lands on his hands, cushions his landing by bending his arms, then springing back up and landing just above their heads.

He reaches back and grabs them both by their shirts, then tosses them in separate directions again with another yell.

Josh and Lucy groan a little as they stand up; watching Ray cross his arms and smirk. "Come on you two, you can do better than that!"

The two, in annoyance, rush forward with fists reared back. Ray steps out of the way and listens to the crack that rings out when their fists connect.

The two stagger back with a yelp, shaking their hands as they throb in pain.

Ray laughs, "Alright. That's enough for today. Next time, I want you two to actually hit me! I need to make a call, I'll be right back." Ray walks off, leaving his relatives to scowl and fume at their uncle.

Kara giggles, "He's just having fun with you two; keep practicing so you can give him a real good time." The two huff as they walk over to the pond and dip their hands in, sighing as the cold water numbs their pain.

"He's good," Josh mutters.

"Be glad it wasn't me. He's not even a fighting-type." Kara remarks, gently smiling down at the two. "You two will get tough enough to beat him, someday."

Ray, in the shade of a tree, dials a number on his communicator and holds it to his ear. "Ed?" he asks, making sure he put the number in right. "Hey, what's up? Got your notice." he asks, rotating his free shoulder.

"_It's the progress on your little pups in a cardboard box you brought in,"_ Ed's gruff voice croaks in reply.

Ray lets out a wavering laugh. "How'd they do?"

"_Well, they're no longer pups in a cardboard box."_

"Statistics?"

"_Ten simulations, law enforcement level. They've already graduated to live ammo simulations."_

"Already?" he shouts, earning a strange look from the others. He took no notice, mostly because his back was turned.

"_Yeah, when M said they had potential, he wasn't kidding. They survived for twenty minutes in the warehouse survival trial."_

"That's pretty good," Ray remarks, leaning against the tree he was standing under.

"_No shit; they just came in two days ago for Pete's sake. Then again, they're all pretty tight with their pokemon. Plus the alpha male is one good battle away from evolving according to the com-eh, Metagross."_

"Jees, quite an achievement for street rats," Ray says, putting his free hand in his pocket and half-listening to Kara giving the fledglings a few battle tips. "Any info on 'em?"

"_Let's see...Jay Taylor and Daniel James. Couldn't get any background on those two or any of them. The alpha male, Scar, and the only female, Iris, are the two real powerhouses of the pack. Those four are the key players of the Hell Hounds so far; watching each other's backs pretty well, but also able to co-op with the rest of their team just as effectively. Get the whole bunch together, and I won't be surprised if they're our next 'all-trades' squad...just the key four, and we've got a small group that can do a lot of damage."_

"I see; looks like I did well. Anything else?"

Ed seems to laugh, _"We had meatloaf for lunch."_

Ray returns the laugh and smirks before ending the call and putting his communicator away. He turns to find the others watching him.

"What now Uncle Ray?" she asks.

Ray smiles, "You both have had enough of me for today, come back tomorrow if you want another shot. Now we move on to the fun stuff; swords." Out of thin air, three swords flash into existence and clatter to their feet; mush to Josh and Lucy's surprise.

"Come on, get up. Let's not waste time, I feel a storm coming," Ray urges, walking back to the group. "Since I doubt you two have even held a sword before, let alone use one, we'll use the steel training swords for now. They're more like clubs instead of swords; hit yourselves with them and it'll hurt, but you won't cut yourself."

Ray stops and looks down at the swords, "Lucy, you've got the twins; Josh the loner. They may not be real, but you've still got to treat them with respect."

Josh is the first to retrieve his sword, its blade in the shape of large scimitar and heavy with dense metal. He gulps while grabbing the hilt with his second hand to help handle the weight; noticing that it and the guard looked similar to a katana, only much larger to match the blade. "Heavy enough?" he rhetorically asks.

"Uhm...Uncle Ray?" Lucy asks, getting him to turn.

"Yea?"

"Are my swords...supposed to be like this?" Lucy asks, gesturing at her bizarre looking swords. They both had a long, slender blade, but there was a hook up at the end. Resting in the butt of the hilt is a small blunt spike and the guard over her hands is another, much smaller blade that had a hook at both ends.

"Yep. Now listen carefully; each Lati in our families had a certain specialty in swordsmanship. Ralph's was power; no other Lati could match his strength and no shield could stop his blade. Ruby's specialty was defense; no attack could past her dexterity. Josh, Lucy, these swords are exact duplicates of your swords; only with blunt blades so, like I said, you don't accidentally cut yourselves. I'm going to teach you both everything I know about your respective blades, after that, you two are on your own."

Ray lets a blunt duplicate of his katana appear in mid-air and takes it by the hilt.

"What's your specialty Uncle Ray?" Lucy asks, holding her swords so their hooks rested on the ground and crossed at her knees; already looking like a pro. Josh, instead of letting his heavy sword hang, rests it against his shoulder.

"Me?" Ray smirks, resting his sword to his shoulder as well, "I have the specialty that determines the outcome of all battles; speed."

The two gulp, feeling anxious once again.

"If you two think you can take me on later, I always accept friendly challenges." Ray says, giving them a grin Kara would be proud of. "As for now, you've gotta learn how to use them. Kara, you teach Lucy; Josh, you're with me."

The Lucario nods before leading Lucy to another spot that was a safe distance away from the guys.

"Alright, Ralph's sword is heavy; but you've gotta learn how to swing it as fast as possible. Here," Ray gently guides Josh into the proper stance; one foot slightly ahead of his body and one foot slightly behind, and his arms spread so they wouldn't cramp, but still balancing the heavy blade.

"Take a step forward when you cut down. This sword is meant to slash, not stab, so only stab if you have to. Oh, and I want you to try left-to-right and right-to-left slashes. Bring your arm back so the blade starts at an ear, then slash diagonally; start at the left ear for a left-to-right and vice versa." Ray explains, watching as Josh does a simple downward cut, but almost sends the weapon into the grass.

"Whenever you attack, you need to step forward. Stay stationary and all that force is either going to damage your wrist or toss the blade from your hands."

Josh nods before trying the down-cut again; this time stepping forward. Unlike before, the blade cooperates much better this time and doesn't try wrenching itself free. He goes on to bring the swords to his left ear and swing diagonally, stepping forward again.

Ray stops him before he could try again. "That was good, but keep an eye on where your legs are. You've gotta make sure that your forward leg is aligned with the same ear you start with; otherwise you risk having the blade slip and losing part of your foot."

Josh cringes a little at the thought of slicing off part of his own foot, but still nods and takes the correction into account while trying again; doing it perfectly.

Ray nods in approval. "You've got the hang of this already; but then again, it's natural for us since sword bearing is in our blood. Try a rising cut; where you start with the blade at your hip and slash diagonally upwards. The sword's heavy, so it won't be easy, but try it!"

Again Josh does as he was told.

"Oh, right, for up cuts you need to keep your footing opposite that of downward cuts. Put the blade at the hip of the leg that is _behind_ you when you cut upwards; if the blade slips out of your grasp, it just fly over your forward foot and miss."

"Like this?" Josh asks, doing it perfectly.

"Yup. Now do a left-to-right slash, right-to-left slash, downward frontal slash, left-to-right up cut, right-to-left up cut, and finish with another downward frontal."

Ray watches him do it once, then turns and heads over to Kara and Lucy.

"Kara, you mind helping out Josh?"

Kara give him a toothy grin. "Of course." she replies, heading towards the young man.

Ray turns to Lucy. "Alright, these swords...well...they're unique; I might not be able to help you out as much as I can with Josh." he admits, walking behind her and gently resting his chin on her head and his arms over hers. "But I do know that these are the basics for them." he finishes, gently guiding her through the various slashes.

"Just like Josh, watch your footing on the vertical cuts, or you'll hit yourself!" Ray adds, stepping away as she mimics what he led her through.

His face turns a little disappointed, and he forms two practice daggers in his hands. She stops as he quickly leaps forward, slips his daggers into the hooks at the end of the blades, and pulls; sending the weapons clanging into the grass behind him.

Lucy gulps, "Sorry Uncle Ray!"

Ray didn't say anything at first, letting his daggers vanish and levitating the swords back to her. "If you hold them gingerly, they're gonna get taken away and used against you." he explains, letting her grab them again. "But don't hold onto them so tight your knuckles turn white. Hold the hilts like you would an umbrella on a breezy day; tight enough to keep it from blowing away, but not so tight that your hands start hurting."

Lucy nods before getting back into a comfortable stance and starting to slash at the air again.

Ray nods, much more pleased this time around. He turns around to see a scene that really made him smile; Josh already using his slashes lik a pro, cutting and dodging invisible opponents while easily moving around.

Kara was watching him with her arms crossed and pleased grin on her face. She glances back at them and finds Lucy beautifully swinging her swords in a dance behind Ray's back.

Kara and Ray's eyes meet and the both nod before turning back to their students.

"Jeez Lucy," Ray laughs, seeing how easily her blades moved around, "You look like you've held these swords before."

Lucy stops and looks at her hands, "Y-yeah, it does now that you mention it... it's weird."

Ray chuckles, re-forming his daggers and getting into a combat stance; the left blade held upside down while the right is right side up. "Well, in that case, get ready for your first practice fight!" he exclaims, grinning as she drops into a stance as well, "Bring it niece!"

~!~

"Hey Josh," Kara says to the Latios in disguise. The boy stops and curiously looks as his soon to be aunt.

"Yeah?"

"Get ready, you're going to get your first swords sparring session!"

Josh give her the raised eyebrow treatment as her arms fall to her sides and she stretch a kink from her neck.

"Aunt Kara?"

"Hmm?"

"Who am I fighting?"

Kara gives him a toothy grin before pointing a paw at herself.

"Who else?"

For the first time, Josh gives her a confident smirk, "Okay." His smirk fades away when he realized that Kara was lacking one important thing... a weapon.

"Uh, you don't have a sword..."

Kara rubs her paws together before giving him a determined look. "Or do I?" She slyly asks, extending an arm forward, holding her palm to the sky.

Josh looks on in interest as a blue aura flame appears in her hand, then in surprise as it condenses into a small blue rod; just long enough to qualify as a hilt.

Kara spins the item to aim it at the ground and from the free end a large guard suddenly grows from the rod. Then out of the guard erupts a massive blade, incredibly long and wide; it almost dwarfed his own sword.

The new weapon smolders with aura flames for a few seconds before it settles down and Kara grabs the hilt with her second hand. She gives the massive, blunt great-sword a few swings before giggling and resting it on her shoulder.

Josh's mouth dangles open at how easily Kara made and swung the massive weapon; the blade had to be at least half her height.

Kara laughs at his expression and hefts the blue sword off her shoulder, easily getting into a stance. "Come on; let's see if you have the talent to stop this!"

~!~

"Cease fire! Cease fire!"

The gang members stopped firing their handguns and look at their work. They were in the shooting range, firing a various human-shaped and pokemon-shaped targets. Unlike their earlier training, this time the guns were real and the rounds live.

Ed gives the rag-tag team a smirk. "One hundred percent of the targets hit, eightieth percentile for bulls-eyes...great job. We're moving on to shotguns, but I'm giving you all a few minutes' break." He says, tromping off to retrieve the larger weapons.

"Best shooter!" DJ proclaims, patting the back of a boy smaller than him. The smaller boy smiles and waves it off before setting his gun down and starting to chat about the target practice.

From the pokemon end of the range, a Houndoom watches the humans in between spouts of Flamethrower. "These humans never cease to amaze me."

"I can agree with you on that," another Houndoom says, trotting next to him right before spitting out a Fire Blast and obliterating six targets at once.

"Hmm, not bad Iris," The first Houndoom says.

"You aren't so bad yourself Scar," Iris compliments before nuzzling him. She glances back at the rest of her pack, her pride surging at the newly evolved Houndooms. The rest were practicing their physical attacks, using their fangs, claws, and even tails to destory the target dummies.

"Our pack has grown stronger since that other Alpha has been left behind. That swine was no good for us," Scar growls, remembering what the former Houndoom did to all of them.

Iris gently licks his cheek, even as he bares his fangs. "Scar, relax. He is long gone now; let us not remember the pain he has put us all through."

"I can not relax! If he was strong enough to subdue our pack to such a weak state, what is he going to be like when we face him later?" Scar exclaims before growling again, this time keeping his teeth hidden. "As the new Alpha, I can not let our pack be reduced to such a state ever again!" He barks before frying a pop-up dummy with a Flamethrower.

"You won't. You have earned the trust of our pack; we are more than willing to follow your orders. Now stand strong as Alpha and lead our pack to a brighter future!" Iris exclaims before releasing a Flamethrower of her own. It wasn't quite as strong as Scar's, but it still smashed the targets it collided with.

Scar breathes out a cloud of smoke before giving a faint, hurt growl. "It is survival of the fittest, when I grow weak, cut me off."

Iris puffs out her own smoke before rubbing her muzzle against his neck. "Scar, no matter what happens; you will still be our leader and you will still be my mate."

Scar gives her a gentle lick and rests the side of his head against hers. "Thank you."

"Whoa Scar, didn't think you'd be that close to Iris."

Scar turns and scowls at his human counterpart. It seems as if they had another successful firing run; they all had confident smiles on their faces. Scar didn't even seem offended, actually taking pride in his mate. "Human, you have no idea."

JT punches DJ in the shoulder, "Aw knock it off DJ; you're just jealous that you don't have a girlfriend yourself." Dj returns the punch and smirks at his friend.

Scar and Iris watch the humans gather. _'These humans and my pack...we have grown quite the bond.' _Scar thinks to himself. Iris seems to pick up on his thoughts, and gently leans against him.

"Scar... are you jealous of these humans?"

Scar quickly turns to her and barks, "No!" Iris quietly giggles, getting Scar to sigh. "I am..." he admits.

"Come on you two!" JT shouts, snapping up their attention. "We get our first mission today!" The two Houndoom quickly bound after them.

Like so many times before, M's voice rings out once they board the elevator.

"_Well, well, it looks like you all are ready to get out on the battlefield already. I knew you all had something special. You'll be redeployed into Altomare, we think we have a gang that is holding off against the Altomarian Authorities and FUZE. You belong to LANCE now, whether you and them were rival gangs does not matter. FUZE has been stepping up their law enforcement since this morning; I want you to find this gang and bring them back to us, make sure you fend off any FUZE agents that attempt to take them. Remember, you are undercover LANCE agents, so do not mention LANCE until you have retrieved them."_

The team listens with anticipation, watching the doors close by themselves and the button for the highest floor press itself. _"A team of Psychic pokemon is ready to transport you to Altomare. I'm going to have one of my best agents with you. Good luck to you all, and try not to make a mess."_

The elevator arrives at its destination soon after that, once again revealing another gigantic room; big enough to stack half an Onix on top of another. Dominating the room is a hologram of the whole world, with various blinking dots of either red or green. Extending from each dot is a small thread of light that connects to one or several floating screens; each one displaying the statistics and mission of whatever LANCE agent is at the corresponding point.

The rest of the room is stark white metal. Lining the walls on both sides are slightly elevated hexagons; each of which is accompanied by a fully evolved Psychic-type and a small computer console. Every now and then, a combination of humans and pokemon would appear on one of the hexagons and depart down a door at the other end or would bustle past the new members, step on one of the hexagons, and get teleported away.

Out of one of the hexagons emerges a large Typhlosion, who gives a thank-you to the Gardevoir that teleported him back to base. He gives the gang a toothy grin before pushing past and into the elevator they used.

"Dang, he's scary." JT says, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

DJ chuckles, "We're lucky to have him here on our side." He turns back to the room and finds an Eevee sitting in front of them.

"Who's this little guy?" JT asks.

The Eevee immediately glares at him. "Little? Guy?" The Eevee snorts, fuming at the crowd "I happen to be a 'she' thank you very much!"

"Are you supposed to be-" One gang member gets cut off by the small Eevee.

"The agent M was talking about? Yup!" The Eevee chirps, giving them a small smile.

The Houndoom aren't impressed. "A small one like you is supposed to be one of his best?" Scar snorts.

Iris gives him a scolding look. "Scar please."

"Would you stop mocking my height?" The Eevee shouts, giving the larger pokemon a death-glare. Scar scowls back but doesn't say anything. "So you're Scar, fitting." She says, sticking a tongue out before turning to the female dog. "Iris? His mate? Nice to meet you, you're a lot more polite than your husband."

Iris gives her a devilish grin. "Yes, but I also have my limits."

The Eevee doesn't even seem to hear her words, instead turning around and leading them towards the same Gardevoir that let Blaze into the base.

The Gardevoir notices the feisty Normal-type and smiles, "If you're looking for Blaze, you just missed him."

"Oh no, I'm helping out a bunch of juvies with a mission." she says, gesturing towards the crowd behind her. "Wanna fill me in, operator?"

The Gardevoir points at one of the lights on the world hologram, a red one near the coast of some landmass. "You're going to Altomare, also known as the floating city. You should be able to work well there," she says, quickly typing something into her computer. "DJ? Since this is your gang's first mission, you'll need these."

Her eyes glow before several ear-buds materialize from nowhere and fly into the ears of both human and Houndoom. "These communicators will keep you in contact with me during your mission; should you require any information at all, or need to relay information back, you'll use these. Now then..." she trails off while the team assembles on the hexagon. "This is a simple recovery mission. The gang you've been assigned to escort back here was last seen in the warehouses near the south end of Altomare. Just find them and bring 'em back here. Be on the alert though; FUZE is already there."

"So find the kids, bring 'em back here, and whip the ass of any FUZE guys that get in the way." DJ paraphrases, "Simple enough."

The Gardevoir nods, "You'll be arriving at a temporary LANCE mini-HQ about a mile away and receive directions there...now get ready...don't leave the platform!"

Before any of them could get transported, JT speaks up, "Wait, what's your name?"

It takes a few seconds before the Eevee realizes he asked her. "Me? Oh!" She smiles and cutely cocks her head, "I'm Maria!"

~!~

Blaze's footsteps echo in the hallway as he walks up to the door that led to his own room in the LANCE base. He never was very stealthy, if only because he's so massive.

"Sara?" Blaze asks white entering, looking around and finding a slightly smaller Typhlosion on the couch. She turns her head from the TV that was displaying the news, smiling as she watches her mate come to her.

"Blaze, I missed you," Sara says letting Blaze sit next to her on the couch in front of a large TV.

"I missed you too," Blaze says as he nuzzles her mate before kissing the soft fur on her maw. Sara shifts herself so she comfortably fits into his arms. Blaze laughs at the look of themselves; he was holding his mate while she held their most precious thing in the world, their egg.

Blaze was at a loss for words as he watches his wife look up at him with ocean blue eyes that slightly calmed the very fire that was brewing inside him.

"So, why did you leave your mission?" Sara asked, tilting her head.

"Ray told me to take a break for a day so I can spend more time with you," Blaze smiles.

"Blaze, is there something wrong?"

Blaze immediately raises an eyebrow, "What?"

"You look troubled," Sara said.

Blaze sighed; one thing that ticked him off was that Sara was so good at figuring him out. "It happened again."

Sara tilts her head and sighs before nuzzling him. "Another tough day? Well, they're getting less frequent at least, so that's good."

Blaze nods, wrapping his paws around her hips. "Yeah, I guess…"

Sara could sense that he still wasn't relaxing. "Blaze, don't worry so much, I hate seeing you like this." She licks his face, calming Blaze even further.

"I'm sorry," Blaze felt the words leave his mouth.

Sara nuzzles him a little more, "It's not your fault. Now come on, let's just sit back and relax." Blaze lets his eyelids droop, tunnel visioning his sight on her and their egg. "I love you so much."

Sara smiles, running a paw down the side of the egg. "I can't say how much I love you Blaze…"

Blaze places a paw on the same paw that was on the egg, filling in the spaces between her fingers. A large blare from the TV ruins their moment, causing them to turn towards the sound with a scowl. Both of them growl, but were interested as an Altomarian reporter was in front of a law enforcement building.

"_This is breaking news! The chief of the CSI branch has been murdered along with all of the officers inside! Their pokemon were never released from their pokeballs, therefore unable to help the CSI members. FUZE is now conducting a full investigation, and they have already found suspects. It has turned out that the SPAHT, or Specialized Pokemon and Human Team, has been behind all of the killings of the incident that happened not so long ago! Here is Sadie with a close up on the FUZE ambassador..." _

Blaze widens his eyes, Sara looked up at Blaze.

"Isn't Altomare where you've been working?"

Blaze nodded, "Yeah."

The image changes to show a woman with short black hair and golden eyes standing on a podium, garbed in a tight-navy blue office suit and skirt, complete with a tie that was an unsettling blood red. Her hair hugged her head, and her golden eyes seemed to pierce throuhg the TV and into the Typhlosions' very being.

Blaze narrowed his eyes at his first look at the ambassador from the organization that they've been eyeing closely. An unnerving woman for an unnerving group.

She wraps long fingers around the edge of the podium and gives the gathered, off-camera crowd a grave look.

"_It is such a shame; I don't know why noble men, women, and pokemon would attack their own fellow partners in the branch of Crime Scene Investigations. Since the loss of the CSI was so great, the mayor himself has asked me to temporarily take over for them as of now. I am greatly sorry for your loss; I will do my best along with other Altomarian Authorities to bring the ones responsible to justice!"_ The woman nodded her head as the crowd replies with applause. She walks off, her heels causing a faint almost arrogant clicking noise as she walked, and is replaced by a tall, broad-shouldered man whose also dressed in a fancy suit and tie; pitch-black and blood-red his color choice.

"_Sir, what do you have in explanation for this?"_ some unseen reporter asks.

"_We've received a possible explanation for this event. It seems as if SPAHT forces were afraid that FUZE would take over their position and were greatly jealous of the CSI branch for working so closely to FUZE. In an effort to fend away FUZE, they murdered their own comrades."_

Blaze raised an eyebrow, "This doesn't make any sense…" Sara frowns.

The camera pans back to the reporter, "_Not only that, but it is truly evident that SPAHT forces did this, various pokemon attacks and bullet markings of the SPAHT standard issued caliber were found. Here is the list of men and pokemon who committed such atrocity-"_ Blaze turns the TV off while shaking his head. Sara looks up at Blaze, her expression was asking for an explanation.

"Your guess is as good as mine about this stuff, I'm not _that_ involved in this." Sara let out a sigh, heating up the air around them in the process.

"Okay…" Blaze puts muzzle next to her ear before speaking with a calm low voice, "Don't worry about it; it'll all change once I get back there."

Sara giggles, "If you say so, but don't over do it okay?"

Blaze smiles, softly fondling her ear with his tongue. A pinch of red revealed itself under the nicely groomed fur of Sara. She put her paws on those of her lover and gives a pleading look.

"Alright, beautiful." He grunts, letting his paws slid off of her hips so she could get up. After her, Blaze stands and walks over to their bed. The living quarters they were given were a small, studio-style apartment; that is only one room. He yawns and lies down, pulling the fireproof blanket over him.

"Wanna come in? It's kind of lonely in here."

Sara smiles before picking up their egg and walks over to slip under their blanket. Even though the cloth wasn't necessary to keep their heat in, they still wanted to have the privacy of the blanket covering them. Blaze rolls to his side, putting an arm around Sara as she lies down next to him on her side also.

She extends her paw, stroking the side of his face. Blaze notices that their egg was between them, so he didn't really mind when Sara's paw went to their egg to cradle it in her arms. This time, Blaze moves his paw out from under the blanket and softly caresses his mate's face.

"That's more like it…" His eyes drooped before falling to sleep in a matter of seconds. His paw slipped down to hug the egg also, smiling in his sleep. Sara smiles also, a small tear of joy formed at her eyes.

"Blaze…" She says his name before kissing her mate.

The natural body heat of the two warms up the bed really fast, causing Sara to fall comfortably into a deep sleep with her husband.

~!~

"Shh!" A boy wearing a baseball hat, a large sweater, and jeans puts a finger to his lips, motioning to his fellow gang members; all wearing an identical black hat. Each had a pistol, and the lot of them are hiding against the walls of a warehouse. Various pokemon are hiding with them, all different types.

"Dammit, we're cornered dude!" One guy hissed. A Manectric was releasing a low growl right next to him.

"Shut up! I hear something…" The boy closest to the door puts an ear to it, furrowing his brow.

"I think they're-" He was cut off as a strange grey arm punches clean through the brick wall next to the door; knocking open a hole that blinds the group with fresh sunlight.

By the time their vision returns, half-a-dozen FUZE men are standing between them and the exit. The arm is now holding the unfortunate teen in the air and is connected to an absolutely massive person. The captive is a tall six-foot-two, but was barely two-thirds the height of the giant holding him in the air.

The young man frantically kicks at the giant, but doesn't get any reaction from him. Ignoring the flailing hostage, one of the hooded FUZE men takes a few steps towards the rest of the gang. "Should any of your wish to not see your friend crushed, you will lower your guns and return your pokemon to their pokeballs."

One of the members spits on the ground, and keeps his gun aimed at the FUZE men, "Sorry, but we can't do that! It's survival of the fittest in Altomare, that's our motto!"

The lead FUZE member releases several laughs, enough to get his whole body shaking. He glances away to check on the hostage, who had stopped due to exhaustion.

He turns back to the stubborn gang before continuing, "I like the way you all think. You all might be great lab rats for the test project we have back at our little base, but I think we'll just get rid of most of you and keep this boy right here!" He raises a gloved hand, and releases a large stream of black leaves from his sleeves.

The gang instinctively winces as the attack rushes at them, but just before the attack connects, a window bursts apart as two Flamethrower attacks come barreling in; incinerating the leaves before they could reach their target.

A few of the FUZE agents step backward in surprise, then start looking around when they hear a voice yell; "Hell Hounds! Sic 'em!"

Several of the windows burst into shards as black forms leap in. A few windows behind the FUZE agents do the same as well as one of the skylights. The shapes land to reveal either teens dressed in black T-shirts and pants with their faces hidden behind black bandanas or Houndoom... but there was also an Umbreon in the mix as well.

"Sorry guys, but I'm afraid they are coming with us," One of the bandana guys proclaims.

"And I'm afraid you must die!" a FUZE agent yells, thrusting his robe sleeves forward and releasing another torrent of black leaves at the intruders.

Several of the Houndoom return fire, literally, and burn the leaves into ashes. Just as the Flamethrower attacks end, the Umbreon goes barreling towards the hooded men, a Shadow Claw attack present on both of her front paws.

She swings at the FUZE member holding up the gangster, but because he moved at the last second she only succeeds in tearing the bottom of his robe. The Umbreon's attack is followed up by several pistol shots from the masked intruders, but the bullets just bounce off him.

While the giant goes after the masked agents, another FUZE rears back before whipping forward, releasing a nasty purple orb from beneath his hood. The Umbreon sees the attack coming and starts glowing white, and then suddenly a Vaporeon is using Hydro Pump to rocket upwards and avoid the attack. She twists around and fires a Hydro Pump at the ceiling, pushing herself towards her opponent. With the acceleration, she spins around and brings her tail right into the enemy's face; knocking him to the ground.

Meanwhile, several Houndoom are putting their Flamethrower attacks into overdrive to keep the giant at bay. The massive foe had already hurled his captive at some of the masked intruders (luckily some of his gang members intercepted and caught him before he could hit anyone) and has both arms up to shield himself from the inferno.

The fight is clearly not in FUZE's favor however. Using a very effective combo of distracting a hooded man with pistol shots, then letting the Houndoom ambush the foe with a Faint Attack has already taken out all but two FUZE agents; only the giant and the leaf-thrower are still standing.

Leaf-thrower growls while dodging more of the bullets. "No matter how many of us go down, you cannot best FUZE!" he shrieks, launching more leaves only for them to get burnt away again.

The leader of the Hell-Hounds laughs. "Who said we wanted to win?" he asks before shrilly whistling.

Understanding his cue, the Houndoom plus a Flareon quickly spew out a smokescreen, filling the warehouse in seconds. By the time it clears, both the Hell-Hounds, their pokemon, and the gang have vanished. Leaf-thrower snarls in anger before obliterating some nearby boxes.

Already several blocks away are the gang plus their saviors. Everyone was panting from the frantic run away, but is fine apart from a few scratches.

"You saved our asses, thanks," wheezes the gang leader. He looks up and sees a Leafeon standing at the front of the Houndoom pack.

The Grass-type takes a deep breath before exhaling a green powdery substance. Almost the whole gang falls to the Sleep Powder, but the leader fights to stay awake. "Wh-Who are you?" he asks before finally succumbing and collapsing into a snoring pile.

JT smirks while lowering his bandana, "Targets secured. Nice work Maria."

The Leafeon laughs before transforming back into an Eevee. "Now you understand why_ I_ am one of LANCE's best agents," she laughs.

DJ smirks while tapping his communicator. "LANCE HQ? This is DJ; mission complete and we're ready to come back with our targets."

~!~

From the ground of the secret garden grew a single flower, its six pink petals a daring contrast to deep green of the grass. It serenely stood near the shadow of a tree, quietly standing there until a single drop of rain fell on it. Two more came close after before a light drizzle followed.

Out of the angry gray clouds above, a single fat raindrop begins its earth-ward journey. It kept falling closer and closer to the ground until a round metal blade smacks into it and destroys the drop.

Josh makes another diagonal slash, careful to not stumble forward and become a target for Kara. She growls before holding her great-aura-sword at an angle to block her nephew-to-be's attacked. The dull blade connects to the aura weapon with a hollow thump, and instinctively Kara shoves Josh's weapon away.

The Latios uses the energy of her push to spin around and bring another attack in from the side, moving so fast that Kara is forced to block again. This time she's in a position where she can't push back, so the Lucario is pinned in one spot; holding back a big heavy weapon.

Josh struggles to push his sword past Kara's and land a blow. He expected his soon-aunt to perform an agile maneuver and break free of the pin, so Josh can't react quickly enough when Kara suddenly drops to the ground and sweeps his legs out from under him.

He falls to his side with a gasp, but still manages to bring his blade up in time to block a donward slash from Kara. "You're good Josh!" Kara smirks, starting to apply pressure and force Josh to grab the blade on its 'non-lethal' side to hold her back.

"Thanks!" he grunts, "You...too!" Josh shuts his eyes before his body brightly glows, forcing Kara to back away and shield her eyes. When she opens them, a Lati is floating in front of her; smirking as he pointed his sword at Kara's neck, then flying backwards as if he was leaping.

"That was dirty!" Kara shouts, fuming at the cheap trick he used to free himself.

Josh only laughs; swinging his sword around so it rests in the crook between wing and body. He wraps his paw and claws around the hilt, realizing that it felt just as natural to hold in his pokemon form as it was while human.

"Now, I've got perfect balance! Just try knocking me over!" Josh proclaims, sticking a tongue out.

Kara's scowl turns into a smirk. "Challenge accepted!" she yells before leaping forward and slashing.

Josh angles his blade in a way that both blocks Kara's slash and causes it to slide away. Thinking he could land a fast hit, Josh tries bringing his blade across the Lucario, but the lag in getting the heavy implement moving from a standing stop gives Kara enough time to raises hers and block.

Realizing this wasn't going anywhere, Josh leaps back again, then goes rushing forward; trying to slash at her in a fly-by. Kara dodges by bending over backward and contorting past the blade's reach, but Josh flies away, then turns invisible as he starts turning around.

Kara quickly closes her eyes and opens aura-sight, easily seeing the blue rocket that was her opponent. His sword was getting dragged along behind him and he was moving pretty fast. She gets a nasty idea immediately and quickly digs her feet into the earth, then lowers her center of gravity. Just as Josh started to approach, Kara holds the broad-side of her blade in his path and braces the weapon with a paw against the backside.

Josh desperately tries to slow down, but was simply moving to fast to stop or turn away. He collides with the make-shift aura wall and ricochets off; landing on his back in the grass, his sword clattering out of his paws and to his side.

"Oww..." Josh groans, seeing Staryu.

Kara sticks her tongue out this time as she walks up to the stunned Latios, pleased that he was visible again. "Gotcha," Kara sweetly says, holding her sword at a slight angle. "Game over."

Josh gulps, but his eyes widen along with Kara's as one of the Lucy's hook swords extends from out of nowhere, grabs hold of Kara's sword, and pulls the Lucario off balance.

"Big brother!" Lucy yells, jarring him from his dizziness. She was still human, and had broken eye-contact with Ray to protect her bro. That doesn't mean that Ray just decided to give her a break, as the older latios (still also a human) rushes in and almost slashes Lucy across the chest had she not leapt back in surprise.

"Helping team-mates is good, but don't lose sight of your opponent!" Ray instructs; releasing a flurry of short, quick dagger slashes. Lucy keeps her distance from her uncle and blocks all of the strikes; keeping her fast-attacking uncle at bay.

Josh takes the opportunity Lucy handed him and flies backward, picking up his sword in the process. He back flips upright and falls back into a levitation stance, waiting for Kara to make a move.

She smiles and reveals one of her canines. "Well, this is getting interesting!" she says, before giving the younger Latios a challenging glare.

"Tch," Ray scoffs, rushing towards Lucy faster than anything she had seen before. She tries to block by making an X with her swords, but it gets turned against her when Ray puts his daggers in the hooks and tugs outward; pulling the swords apart and crossing her arms.

The older Latios kicks forward, pushing her back into the grass. He laughs and twirls his daggers in triumph, only for his face to fall when he hears a Latias cry out. The red-and-white dragon appears before him and flies straight at him, the hooks swords trailing behind her.

Ray leaps and rolls to the side to dodge his angry niece, smiling as he does so. "Well, looks like someone's taking this to the next level. In that case..." Ray lets his daggers vanish and a training katana appear in his hands, readying himself as his niece loops back around.

Instead of her charging back at Ray, she turns and flies towards Kara instead. The Lucario brings up her sword to try to and block, but Lucy easily hooks Kara's weapon and jerks it from the canine's hands. Lucy looks back with a triumphant smirk, watching as the shiny blue weapon fades out of existance.

Josh tries to take advantage of the situation, rushing towards Kara with his sword ready for a stab, but Ray steps between the two, angling the katana to catch Josh's sword and nudge him just off course. Josh is still heading for Kara, but now the Lucario has enough room to contort out of the way.

Josh grits his teeth and skids to a stop in mid-air, taking a few seconds to regain his balance. Lucy floats next to him, panting as tiredness continued its creeping victory.

"This isn't working as well as I thought it would be," Josh said, struggling to keep hold of his sword; he was surprised that his energetic sister was starting to slow down. Lucy's grip on her swords slackens for a second before tightening up. Josh readies himself too, preparing for an attack.

Ray smirks while spinning his katana around. Another aura ember appears in Kara's paw, this time growing into a duplicate of Ray's katana. The two partners have their backs together, but heads facing the younger dragons. Ray grins while angling his blade so the flat side reflects the Latias and Latios.

"Well...your move..." Ray resists a laugh, "_birdies._"

Josh and Lucy fume, then dash together towards their opponents. Kara and Ray rush forward also, and the sound of metal clanging against metal drowns out the now pouring rain for a split-second. Josh and Lucy fly backwards, skidding in the wet grass with their swords clattering along beside them.

Josh could feel the raindrops pattering on his head and opens his eyes to see his uncle and aunt standing in front of them, still feeling the force of the collision. He turns to look at Lucy and can see several bruises on her body, and can feel a handful on himself. How those bruises even got there, he had no clue.

"Had enough?" Ray asks, speaking loudly only to be heard over the rain.

Josh pushes himself upright while shutting his eyes, trying to focus on regaining enough strength to keep going. After a couple seconds, he reopens his eyes to show a raging fire. Adrenaline began coursing through his body and his paws move out to his sides and Lucy's hook-swords fly to them. He snatches them both from mid-air and brandishes both at his uncle and aunt-to-be.

"You're strong Josh, just like your dad."

Josh smiles, taking pride in what he heard. "Thanks Uncle Ray, but don't think that means I'm going easy on you!" He yells, flying forward; swords getting pulled along behind him.

The two veteran fighters slash downward at Josh's wings, only for the hook swords to spring up and block both attacks. Josh grits his teeth as he struggles to levitate under the pressure Kara and Ray are exerting on him. "Sis! If you plan on helping, now's a really good time!" he yells.

A Latias war-cry echoes across the garden as Lucy comes flying in above her brother, his massive sword held in her paws. Giving herself a Psychic boost, she swings the swords horizontally and hits Kara in the shoulder.

She winces and lets up on Josh's left sword just enough for him to hook her sword and toss it away. With one sword free, Josh swings around and nails his uncle in the jaw; getting him to groan slightly.

Ray leaps back to regroup with Kara, who had re-formed her aura-katana, and get ready for another set of attacks; but none came. Josh collapses in heap on the ground, just before Lucy falls on top of him. She rolls off her brother and into the grass beside him; both Eon-pokemon fast asleep.

Kara lets her sword vanish and rubs at her shoulder while Ray rubs his jaw. "If that was a real sword..." she trails off, walking towards the sleeping siblings with a warm smile on her face.

"They _really_ went past what I was aiming for," Ray says, grunting slightly as he pokes a forming bruise. He shakes his head, "Damn." He transforms into a Latios and gently nuzzles his relatives. Ray smiles while hoisting Josh onto his back.

"Can you pick her up? These two shouldn't sleep in the rain." Ray asks. Kara nods before picking up Lucy, cradling the smaller dragon in her arms as they head inside and out of the rain.

~!~

"Ugh...what the..." Josh grumbles, waking up and finding himself still a Lati, but lying on his back under a gray blanket.

"Big brother, good job!" he hears Lucy exclaim, and turns to see her lying beside him. The two seemed to be on a futon that was folded down into its bed-mode.

"You too sis. It wouldn't have gone so long had you not surprised Kara and gave me time to escape." Josh replies, "Now...where are we?" The two look around and find a window splattered with rain and impossible to see out of, a lamp at both sides of the futon, and a few plants in the corners of the room, but the light came from a ceiling fan above them.

"Don't get up; you guys are in bad enough shape already!" exclaims a voice they both recognized. They turn and see Bianca coming in with a tray in her hands, on which are two bowls of hot soup. Sparks followed at her heels with the spoons and napkins.

"Where are we?" Josh asks to his human friend as she sets the tray between him and Lucy.

"You're in Ray and Kara's apartment!"

The two Latis immediately blush, remembering their first experience here.

"They're out doing something; they'll be back soon though." Bianca adds, smiling as the Pikachu places a spoon beside each bowl and a napkin on the laps of the two dragons.

"Can you sit up somehow?" she asks.

The Latis curve their bodies to prop their necks against the wall behind them, wincing from the effort on their sore muscles. They were uncomfortable, but they soon forgot about it after their first spoonful of the clear, green-tinted soup.

"I love you Bianca," Lucy says, shuddering as warmth spreads through her body.

Bianca laughs while Sparks hops up to her shoulder. "Don't thank me; Ray's the one that made them! They're filled with different berry juices and ingredients from the poke'mart. You two should feel restored by the end of the bowl, but don't get up. You've got to get more rest after the training you guys went through today."

The two quickly realize what she meant, even though the soup made their muscles stop aching; they could still feel exhausted from the day. Josh glances upward and spies a clock hiding near some of the plants. "Eight o'clock?" he exclaims, "Wow, we've been out for a while!"

"Yes, but you both still need to sleep more. I'm going back to the grandpa's so I can get some sleep, but Ray said you both can sleep here for tonight." Bianca replies, gently lifting Sparks off her shoulder and tucking him close to her stomach while pulling in the raincoat that she was wearing. "I've got work tomorrow, but I plan on being in attendance as well!" she happily says before heading for the door. "See you two later!" she finishes with a wave.

The Latis wave back until she disappears from view and they hear the click of the main door.

"I can move things with my mind," Josh brags to Lucy.

"So can I," Lucy retorts, just as abruptly as her brother.

"Think Uncle Ray can teach us?" Josh asks.

Lucy smiles, "Of course he will, but it doesn't hurt to try on our own." She looks down and starts staring at her spoon; a few seconds pass before it shakily lifts into the air on its own.

"Big brother! Look!"

Josh was looking and smiling. "Nice!" he says, then stares at his own spoon. His lifts into the air, shaking just as much as Lucy's, and hovers for a second...then the two objects clatter to the tray as the Latis grab their heads.

"Owww..." Lucy moans.

"Let's not try that again," Josh says, lifting up the tray and sitting it on the ground. "I'm tired..." He yawns, then suddenly sinks under the covers and falls asleep.

Lucy laughs at her brother as she nestles into the sheets; whispering, "Ash...I'm coming," as she dozes off.

~!~

"_Not a really good day for an investigation, there's rain everywhere,"_ Ray thinks aloud. Kara is sitting on his back and both are floating above the crime scene, invisible of course.

"_True, but hey, FUZE brought in a canvas to cover up the broken windows, so I guess its okay." _The Lucario replies.

"_This is a complete fake. Look, only FUZE members are coming in and out...I think I even saw a guy drop some bullet casings on the ground."_

"_I know, and look at the slash marks on those walls. Scyther almost never cut horizontally; they always cut downward..." _Kara adds, _"Those almost look like...they're either Absol or Gallade slashes. Its hard to tell."_

"_Alright you two, that's enough for today. We've got a start, thanks for the support."_ A female operator's voice says through the commmunicators in their ears.

"_Just doing our jobs. Ray and Kara out."_

The two fly out of the building, high above the press and people in the rain trying to get answers. As they headed back to the apartment a lightning bolt flashes in front of them. Nothing unusual there, but through the heavy rain the light seemed to take on bizzare shapes and forms. It only happened once.

The Latios and Lucario land on their balcony, stopping only for Kara to get off and Ray to open the door.

"These FUZE guys...they aren't normal...you're only supposed to have one unique life-force in your body, but these guys seem to break that rule. Weird huh?" Kara comments.

"That's definitely not normal." Ray replies, "But first we have to answer, just what is FUZE? We've seen the human ambassador, but I'm wondering if the group is even human."

"Probably not." Kara answers, waiting for Ray to enter the apartment before blasting most of the water out of her fur with an aura pulse.

Ray laughs as some of the water splashes inside and gets him anyway, and then floats down the hall to check on his relatives. He slowly opens the door and pokes his head in, finding them both asleep. He clicks off the light with his mind and leaves, turning around to find a vest-less Kara coming from the bathroom. Her fur may have been mostly dry, but she still has a towel draped over her shoulders and covering her lady parts.

"They asleep?"

"Yep. We should probably hit the bed too; we've got a lot to teach them tomorrow."

"That was an intense fight," Kara admits, leading Ray towards their room, "They put up a good fight for beginners."

While his fiancé slips under the covers, Ray psychically removes the water from his down and drops it in a nearby plant. Once dry, he too climbs into bed. "Yeah, I know. Josh said something about Ralph sharing info with them...that probably helped out."

Kara looks over at Ray, whose gaze was directed up at the ceiling. The two lay there for a period of silence before Kara speaks up again. "I wonder how Blaze is doing."

Ray grunts, closing his eyes. "He'll be okay; his will is strong enough to keep Inferno at bay."

"Think we should tell Josh and Lucy?"

"I'll tell them eventually, but for now, all we can do is just hope that the Blaze side of him wins the battle." Kara looks up at the ceiling with worry.

"...does Blaze know that..." She stops before ending.

Ray sniffs, "No. It's best off the he doesn't know."

~!~

CJ: (Glances over and sees that DB is still typing away, then shaking his head and deleting what he wrote) Since he's still busy I'll do the ending as well. As you've seen, more mysteries abound! Well, they're going to stay that way until a future chapter airs. Oh yeah! SPAHT stands for **S**pecialized **P**okemon **A**nd **H**uman **T**eam

DB: Yup, so check back when the next chapter arrives! Maybe the question will be answered? Or maybe three more will come and take its place? Who knows?

CJ: Aren't you still writing?

DB: Doesn't mean I can't talk too. I can multitask.

CJ: Then why'd I have to do the intro?

DB: There wasn't really enough for just one person, was there?

CJ: Good point. Well, anyway, leave a review and be waiting for the next chapter! 'Till then!

(Both wave good-bye, although DB's eyes are still glued to the computer screen.)


	8. Inconspicuous

Sorry for the long wait guys! I was really, really busy, but I'm gonna get moving now! I let my friend Darkblur lay off this chapter so he could focus more on his own chapters, so don't be surprised if this doesn't have the DB touch! Oh! Here's a (couple of) song(s) that actually inspired me on this chapter (I'm gonna do this often, so that you can somewhat see what goes on in my head when I hear these songs)

**Ultramarine Meditation – Blessed Pop** by **III** **(Megaman ZX tunes remastered "Aile Disc")**

**The Field **by **The Sound Providers (the best chill underground rap that actually doesn't have to do anything with sex, drugs, partying, or alcohol.)**

~!~

_Latias sighed as she floated down and set her small feet like appendages so that she could stay on the ground of the white void that they were in. They as in Ash and Lucy. _

"_Ash…" Latias cooed his name, and bent forward to levitate so that she could get her face closer to the figure sleeping on the nothingness of the void. Ash was fitted in a white T-shirt and shorts, looking completely different from the last time she met him in her dreams. This time, he looked peaceful while he slept on his side with his eyes softly closed with a slacked jaw._

_She looked at his form, and already saw the differences between the Ash now and before. The Ash before was just a scrawny and cute boy, and the Ash now is a slightly taller, slightly bigger teen. Despite the small physical changes, she saw the same, old, playful Ash Ketchum who was sleeping. She didn't know why or how he was sleeping, but she didn't really care. She was happy that she got to see him again._

_Despite Lucy's bravery before, her heart was thumping so that the only thing that she could hear in this void was her own heart pumping erratically as she raised her paw and moved it close to Ash's face. She took her claws to slowly rake through his hair, and then use the soft side of her index claw to stroke the side of his face. This only made her heart beat even faster, and without her noticing, she let her eye lids droop so that they were half lidded. That was when she slowly tilted her head and moved her face closer slightly slacked her jaw and closed her eyes as she moved in for the-_

"_Sis! C'mon, it's time to get up!" _

~!~

Lucy woke up with her eyes shooting open, frightening Josh for a quick second.

"I was thinking about waking up early so we can get through our lessons with Uncle Ray done early. Sorry, was I interrupting something? You must've had a good dream cause you were smiling like a Ludicolo there," Josh chuckled. He stopped when he saw Lucy's surprised look scrunch up so that she looked like she was going to cry.

"Uh… sis?" Josh asked, backing up a bit when Lucy shot up in the air, shouting while she clenched her eyes and let a couple of tears drop from her eyes.

"BIG BROTHER YOU **IDIOT**!" Josh didn't even hesitate to fly out of the garden, and that seemed like the smartest choice since the fuming Latias followed suit, and both of them flew out with the wind following them…

Uncloaked.

~!~

**Chapter 7: Inconspicuous**

~!~

"This is what you wanted to see right?" Ross asked, "Sorry our museum curator is sick and can't give you the tour."

"Oh my, its quite alright," The FUZE ambassador happily replied. Last night's storm has already blown past and the morning was much more pleasant. So much in fact that the ambassador traded in her heavy coat for a more comfortable, tight, midnight-purple one-piece and navy-blue heels. Her flame-red hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Yes well, if you'll step this way, the DMA will be just ahead."

She smiled while following the young man, closely followed by a tall person in another of the FUZE cloak and hoods; but unlike the other agents, this one was a dark, bloody red with a steel-silver stripe down the center. He didn't speak, but seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on Ross.

Just a few steps and a corner later, the three were looking up at the large metal machine. "Why, isn't this a sight for sore eyes!" She said, giving Ross an eerie smile.

Ross only chuckled while leaning against the railing, "I take it you've seen this before?"

"Oh yes I have. Many, many times when I was younger," The ambassador replied, reaching out a hand to touch the machine, but she froze when Ross cleared his throat.

"Please don't touch. I'm sorry ma'am, but you're lucky to even be inside this museum! It's getting some serious renovations after a little...eh, incident that happened here."

The woman hissed under her breath, giving the young man a glare, but she quickly regained her composure before he could notice a thing. "Oh I've heard about that. I am very curious as to what exactly happened."

"Well, nobody really knows. I work here and I don't even know!" Ross laughed while crossing his arms.

The ambassador snarled on the inside, but she still politely said her next words. "Well, thank you for your service, its reassuring to see this artifact is still intact after what happened. Farewell!" she chimed, leaving with her bodyguard in tow.

After leaving the museum, they shielded their eyes from the sudden bright lights of the sun. Purple cloaks glided towards them, but they dispersed when she waved her free hand.

"That man didn't seem suspicious to you?" The red cloaked man asked, his voice incredibly low.

She knowingly smiled, "That boy knew nothing. I knew we shouldn't have bothered with him but gone to see Lorenzo instead."

Back at the museum, Ross locked up the doors before heading to the front desk and picking up the phone. It was old...old enough to have a rotary dial, and completely untraceable. "Lorenzo?" he asked after dialing and hearing the other end pick up, "Yes...yeah she came. Pretty creepy woman too...Just as you planned, huh?...Yeah, I'll stay low for awhile. You owe me man...okay. Bye." Ross hung up the phone and huffed. "The things I get myself into..."

~!~

"No! Oh Arceus no, leave him be!" A young man cried out, sliding on his back away from the FUZE member in front of him. The imposing figure wore a dark blue hooded cloak with a bright yellow stripe down the middle. Floating in the thug's gloved, three-fingered hand was the man's pokeball. The figure flexed its fingers, sending jolts of electricity into the ball, and consequently into the pokemon inside, before it got teleported.

"FUZE thanks you for your generous donation," he grunted, retracting the hand into his sleeve. "And I should also congratulate you on being the last gangster to survive. Once you're done with, we can finally get along as planned."

"_Kazoo."_ Spoke a voice in the cloaked man's head, "_Quit goofing off and finish your job. We're done with the DMA inspection."_

The hooded man smiled behind the black nothingness under his hood. "Lighten up Magnus, I'm having fun," Kazoo said to no-one in particular, then laughed a laugh like an old man would before looking down at the gangster.

"You've got five seconds."

The younger man whimpered before hurrying to his feet and darting further down the alley. He managed to get to the corner and escape the hooded man's view.

"1… 2… 5." Kazoo cackled before a lightning bolt launched from under his hood, curving itself around the corner. What followed was a shriek and a bright display of electricity.

Kazoo effortlessly glided around the corner to see the gangster, twtiching on the ground and in serious pain. "My, my, I thought for sure that was enough to kill you. But don't worry; I'll make sure to correct that..."

The gangster felt his legs start to bend on their own; going in a direction they weren't supposed to. They snapped and his loud scream rang out once more, startling a flock of Pidgey to the point of flying away. Silence followed right after an eerie laugh.

~!~

Blaze smiled as his paw ran down the side of his lover's sleeping face. His hand trailed down to see that the egg was still intact, wrapped in a blanket that was the arms of its mother. Life couldn't be any better… Then those thoughts flooded his mind. What would happen if the new born also develops an alter ego? What would happen if Inferno takes over while he's taking care of the baby? What if-

"Blaze?" Sara asked, frowning. She cradled the egg on her lap with her free arm.

"Yeah?" Blaze asked while reluctantly meeting her gaze. Sara put a paw on his shoulder.

"Is… it getting worse?"

"I… I don't know." Blaze clenched his paw into a fist, looking away, "I'm sorry you had to fall in love with some freak of nature with an alter ego."

"Blaze, please. Look at me," Sara commanded with a soft tone. Blaze reluctantly met eyes with her. Sara was relieved to see the ruby eyes instead of the sickly green eyes of his alter ego. She rubbed her mate's shoulder while raking her claws against the skin under his fur.

"You're the one I fell in love with. You can beat him, so stand strong like the Blaze I know. I'll help you as much as I can to do so," Sara gave him a determined smile. Blaze closed his eyes and opened them again.

"Thanks. I love you," Blaze said as he nipped his mate's nose and hugged her. After a minute, the intercom softly spoke with a Gardevoir's voice.

"_Anybody involved with Altomarian affairs, please report to the briefing room."_ Blaze sighed, letting of Sara.

"Sorry, but I've gotta go," Blaze said, giving her a serious look. Sara put her muzzle on his, sliding a tongue inside his mouth to stroke his tongue quickly. Before Blaze could be tempted to start out a making out session, she broke the kiss and nodded.

"Take care." Blaze sniggered, fired up by the little pep talk from his mate. She really does work wonders…

"Don't worry. I will!"

~!~

Blaze stomped in to find the Hell Hounds and Maria already gathered, the only real piece of furniture in the room being a raised, circular table that was displaying a map of Altomare; patched with various colors.

"Took you long enough," Maria, a Leafeon lying in the sunlight from a window, remarked.

"Well, sorry for having a wife and egg to look after," Blaze chuckled, oblivious to the grave looks on the Hell Hounds. "So what's up?"

The only unfamiliar face, a young man in the usual LANCE uniform, glanced up from his PDA. "This morning, all of the gang members disappeared. And I mean _disappeared_ they all just dropped off the map," he replies, tapping a button on the device in his hand and changing the map. "They were present until roughly 12:50 AM this morning. Then, poof. Nada."

The Typhlosion scowled. He would've said that maybe the equipment's malfunctioning, but the gear used by the Lance Intelligence Operations, or LIO for short, never broke down. If they every did, then they would immediately be fixed.

JT and DJ, as well as the rest of their group, were frowning at the news. The gang they saved yesterday is safe, far from Altomare, but they were upset that they couldn't save anymore. Some were fiddling with their red neck bandannas, others with their black outfits, and still others with their silver belts of ammunition for the firearms on their backs...

"Strange... FUZE is definitely behind this, am I correct?" Maria asked. She had changed to an Espeon, taking in as much info as she could as her intelligent side came out.

"Yes."

"Just making sure," Maria replied through a yawn.

"It's because of this that FUZE has shifted to one of our main priorities, and we're prepping intelligence officers to get ready to join you a-s-a-p."

"We better get going too," JT growled.

The man scoffs, "Why wouldn't we? This _is _your home turf. All of you, along with Ray and Kara who are already there, are to provide support for the intelligence officers when they arrive. After securing their base of operations, your job is to aid in the set-up and then, if they haven't arrived yet, guard duty."

"Doesn't sound too bad... boring, but simple."

The man fiddled with his PDA before continuing. "Until we can gather more information on FUZE in general, nobody is allowed to directly engage them. Only fight with them if citizens or other LANCE personnel are under attack, or, obviously, if they attack the intelligence base. Under NO circumstances are any of you to attack a FUZE member; unprovoked."

The Hell Hounds grumbled at this... they were anxious to get back at FUZE for bothering them.

"As could be inferred from what I said, you'll arrive in Altomare before the officers. You shouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd, but they will arrive at the base at three-PM. Please make sure you have it operational by then. Also, you will be split up during teleportation so as to not draw attention to LANCE. You will be given the rendezvous address in the transport hub. Good luck out there."

All of the agents nodded before turning and leaving.

~!~

"So… Let me get this straight. You followed Jabir and pretty much chased him around the ends of Altomare, yelling his _name_ while you were _uncloaked_?"

All three Latis floated in the secret garden, the eldest of the three watching his nephew and niece with crossed arms. Josh and Lucy were floating, with their arms outstretched and a bucket filled with water held in each paw. Their muscles burned and screeched in pain, but Ray was flat out refusing to let them stop.

"H-how much longer?" Josh grunted, his arms started to shake from the weight.

"Told you five times already, until I say so." Ray retorted before giving Lucy a small smack of psychic-energy for bending her arms.

"Which is when?" Josh asked, his eyes clenching shut.

"When you two get smart. Put them down and get ready to pick them up again."

The two younger Latis gave a sigh as they let their arms drop, relieving them of the pain. They had already endured that three times, with barely ten seconds of rest in between them. Ray had declared that today would be spent working on their endurance, as well as writing, reading, and psychic techniques. With his current mood, things weren't really looking bright for the two of them.

The two siblings were definitely not used to physical work with their arms; the main reason why Ray decided to punish them this way. Not only would it make their arms tougher, but it would help them balance and levitate as well. Well, that was his excuse anyway.

"Alright, three, two, one, UP!" The two groaned as they lifted the heavy buckets again.

A drowsy Kara stumbled into the garden, giving a big yawn that showed off all of her sharp canine teeth. She marched up to the large Latios, a bit peeved that he didn't wake her up this morning.

"Ray, have you seen the news lately?" She asked, just before collapsing onto the dragon's back.

"Yes." Ray replied with a short, mad, one word answer.

"They said that a Latios and Latias were seen this morning flying around, just to let you know. Oh, and something about the names Josh and Lucy," She said, but then decided that was the wrong thing to say when Ray let out a frustrated sigh and slapped his forehead.

"Come on you two! It's too bad if you liked your previous names, cause it looks like we're going to have to change them! Down!" Lucy was a little appalled, but Josh didn't care. He was too focused on not dropping the buckets of water. The fact that they had to keep the water level was the worst part. Any spillage would result in one more session.

The younger dragons sighed as their arms go limp, the weight actually pulling them down a few inches.

"Good morning you two," Kara said while resting her head in between the crook of Ray's neck and wing. She got a grunt and a whine as an answer.

"Alright, back up," Ray said, "If you both can do this one without bending your arms, we'll stop afterwards."

The two sighed while raising their arms, struggling to do what Ray wanted.

"Come on, you guys can do this!" Kara cheers.

"I don't know...if I can..." Josh grunts. The two Latis closed their eyes in an effort to help concentrate on holding the weights up.

"Come on; don't give me a half-assed effort! Give me one hundred percent! If I had to do this in my own training, you do too!" Ray exclaimed. Lucy and Josh are shaking, almost violently, barely managing to keep the buckets up.

"Halfway there!" Ray said.

Kara grins with pride, knowing her niece and nephew are doing their very best in overcoming this obstacle. "Come on! You got this! Beat old Uncle Ray!" she cheered.

Josh and Lucy re-open their eyes, revealing the determination within. Both had to grit their teeth, but they kept their composure; staring down their smirking uncle.

"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three." By three the younger Latis were back to clenching their eyes and heavily breathing. "Two...One...Now lower them slowly!"

Josh and Lucy try, but the buckets go clunking into the grass and spraying water everywhere. All four share a much needed laugh.

"Take a flight and wash yourselves off! Once you come back, you'll receive your new names!" Ray said, hiding a smile. The two could only nod as they wobbily flew off towards the ocean.

"Did you really do that while training?" Kara asked with a skeptical look on her face, sliding off of Ray's back.

Ray grined and shakes his head, "What are you kidding me? No way!"

"What happened?" Kara asked, and then Ray let out a sigh, but then grinned.

"It's actually funny now that I think about it. Well…"

Meanwhile, the two younger Latis let out a sigh of relief as they floated on the surface of the ocean; the cold water cooling off their burning arms.

"I can't feel my arms anymore," Latias whined.

"Your fault," Latios grunted before flipping over so that his front could be submerged in the water.

Lucy mimics him, before mentally saying, "_Well, it wouldn't have happened if you didn't wake me up!"_

"_Oh come on… As if I knew that you were having a little make out session with Ash or something," _ Josh replied, sighed.

The next thing either one knew, they're lying in the cool grass of the garden. Both quickly take to the air in surprise, finding a sweatdropping Kara and chuckling Ray nearby.

"You teleported us?" Latias angrily chirped.

Ray chucked a little more before gesturing them to follow. "Come on, aren't you anxious to know your new names?" he asked. He pointed to Latias,

"Yuna." And then Ray pointed towards Latios.

"Roxas." Ray then changed into his human form and led them out of the garden. Latias had a surprised look, it didn't seem that bad. Her name actually seemed _better_. Latios kind of liked his new name also. They managed to catch a wink from Kara before she turned around to slip a paw into Ray's hand and walk out. The two couldn't really care as much because they were just happy that their uncle was in a better mood. Aunt Kara sure worked wonders.

As the Latis changed into humans, Ray felt something rumble in his pocket. Taking note, he removed his little device and started reading the new message as they leave.

After finishing it, his eyebrows lifted up a little. "Huh...weird..."

"What's wrong?" Yuna asked.

"Apparently all the thugs in Altomare are gone," Ray frowned, hiding his device away again. "An intelligence team is being sent here along with Blaze, Maria, and the entire HH pack."

Roxas gently taps his aunt's shoulder to get her attention, and asks, "Who's Maria?" Kara replied with the "I'll tell you later," look.

"Well, we've got no specific orders, so no reason to let that interrupt our plans," Ray huffed, turning around to walk backward, but also looking at his companions. "Okay. You two remember using psychic abilities yesterday?" Both of the young dragons nodded, and luckily no-one else was in the streets this early, so it was safe to talk about such private subjects.

"Well, we're going to eat breakfast with our minds today," Ray smirks. Roxas and Yuna look at each other with a smile. This was what they've been waiting for.

"You two look excited," Kara chuckled.

Roxas and Yuna nodded. "Yeah this is so cool!" Ray laughed.

"Here's the condition though," Ray warned, "You absolutely can't use your hands or any parts of your body to help and you have to use the utensils."

Undeterred, the two teens shrug off his warning. "Bring it Uncle Ray!" Lucy demanded.

If only they knew what they were getting into.

~!~

"Such a nice sunny day," a melodious female voice chimed, wafting out from under the hood of a light-green cloak with a dark-green stripe going down the center. Whoever it was stood just a little over five-feet tall and was rather slender, compared to the more bulky form of the other FUZE members. "It's just too bad the pimps and gangstas don't get to hang here anymore," she added, sighing and leaning against her companion; a slightly shorter FUZE member in a black cloak with an electric yellow stripe down the middle.

A snort came from the black hood as he gave her a rough push away, then he crossed his arms.

"Aww, what's wrong honey?" she cooed.

"How many times have I told you to not call me that?" the black cloak angrily snapped.

The green cloak giggled before draping an arm over the black one's shoulders. "_Sorry_ my dearest little Shadohm," she said, shaking with giggles.

"**You do not say my name aloud!**" the black cloak almost roared, "Dark-rai, what is taking them so damn long?"

Both of them straightened up immediately at the sound of clicking heels, and they turned to see the FUZE ambassador walking up to the bridge they're on; followed closely behind by the red and steel cloaked figure.

"So impatient Numbers zero-six and zero-seven, forgiving us for moving _soo_ slowly," She said, giving the smaller one an icy glare. If he flinched, the cloak didn't show it. In fact, he seemed to stare her down... despite the fact he was the smallest of the four.

"At least you got your asses over here. Now let's go... plant face," he gestured at the green cloak, "already ruined my day."

"You're only making me want you more," The green figure purred, getting the black one to glare at her instead.

"Before you two draw attention to ourselves," the red cloak rumbled, his voice so deep it seems to make the very stone of the bridge vibrate. "Shall we be off?"

The ambassador already started off, her three cloaked followers trailed after like colored shadows.

"So when do we move to phase two?" The black cloak asked.

"Would it kill you to get some patience?" The red cloak snorted.

"I try but plant face keeps wearing it away," Black cloak replied, which only got the green cloak to start giggling.

The ambassador clicked some of her nails together to get the attention of her subjects. "I can't wait either zero-six," she cooed, which made the blood of the other three turn ice-cold... which wasn't helped by the malicious smile crossing her lips, "The Altomarian government is almost completely corrupted... we keep claiming more and more power...its only a matter of time before we can proceed..."

~!~

On their way to the makeshift HQ, DJ and JT met up with Lloyd, Blaze, and Maria; and those three could almost cut the tension of their Hell Hound company with a knife. They and their Houndoom glared daggers at any FUZE member they passed, but true to orders they didn't pick any fights.

In a cruel twist of fate, LANCE picked their old hangout for the base. As the group of seven enter and find the remaining Hell Hounds already there, hard at work too, DJ and JT had to shake away the memories surrounding this place.

"I assume this place has some value?" An Umbreon Maria asked, taking note of the gangsters' odd behavior.

"Yea. A lot of it bad." DJ grunted, before heading off to help.

Lloyd shoved his hands into his pockets, finding a lighter and cigarette; which he promptly used. "Not too bad a place though," he cluelessly remarked, breathing in a drag.

JT shook his head before heading off to help as well. "We've got the equipment set-up. Keep an eye out for LIO will ya?" he asked.

Lloyd gave a thumbs up before leaving with the Typhlosion and Espeon. The doors shut with a loud resonating clang, leaving the gang alone.

"So what's eating you?" DJ grunted to his friend after noticing how distracted he seemed to be.

"It's just not right for all of them to disappear that easily. Even the low-time guys weren't that pathetic, and the big fish should've taken fifty FUZE guys a pop to go down... something just isn't sitting right about that."

"This only shows that FUZE is not to be underestimated," Scar grunted, sitting a foot away.

"Yeah, I know, but don't forget what Ed said. Overestimating your enemy-"

"Is as bad as underestimating your enemy," Iris finished for her partner.

DJ nonchalantly points his thumb at the hound. "What she said."

~!~

As Lloyd kept an eye open for the intelligence officer, he quickly became distracted by an attractive young lady walking toward him. He quickly kicked a leg up behind him and stubbed out his cigarette before she arrived. "Well hey there," he said once she got close enough. Blaze and Maria rolled their eyes before wandering over to the other side of the street.

"Well hey yourself," she chirped, stopping just in front of Lloyd and leaning against the railing on her hip. Her waist long green hair blew to one side thanks to an ocean breeze, which accompanied by her slender form, lightly tanned skin and beautiful almond-like eyes made her incredibly attractive.

"I've never seen anyone dress like you before, you new here?"

Lloyd was right about her clothing; the bright colors adorning her made her stand out against a crowd. She had on a bright-red mini-halter, leaving her upper back and entire stomach area bare. She also had shorts that match the color of her top, stopping halfway to the knee and giving her a fiery look, which Lloyd liked even more. Around her waist was the most bizarre skirt the man has ever seen, snugly holding her, but having two large flaps of fabric on both sides and weird point in the front where it suddenly dipped downward. The design was mimicked by a shawl draped over her shoulders, and both shared a cloudy white color. The final article, apart from her pink sneakers, were two deep-red sleeves, long enough to hide her hands when her arms were down.

"Well, actually...I am!" She hesitated before finishing, but she ended with a cute embarrassed giggle. "I was actually hoping for someone to like, help me look around you know?" She puffed at some of the hair hanging in her face.

Lloyd inwardly cursed at his luck, he was pretty unfamiliar with this place too... and even if he wasn't, he needs to stick around for the intelligence officer. But then again; Blaze, Maria, and the Hell Hounds could easily hold down the fort... if questioned, he could always just say that he was doing a little recon.

"I'm new here too, wanna check this place out?" Lloyd suggested.

The girl only laughed, "Sorry, but I want to find someone who actually knows their way around."

_'Damn'_ "Suit yourself."

"Oh, but thanks for the offer! Once you learn your way around, I'll gladly accept!" She said before continuing on.

Suddenly an idea sprang into his head, one that would win him at least a few points with this babe. "Uh, I do have some friends here that know their way around."

She stopped and turned back.

"Find your way to a gondola shop run by a nice old man named Lorenzo. He can help out. Just tell 'em Lloyd sent ya," he finished with a wink.

"Thanks. Name's Miashi." She winked before giving a flirty hair flick and walking off.

Lloyd stared at her visible lower back, admiring the perfect tan across her skin. Sexy. _'Man, the girls here sure are hot.'_

"You done womanizing yet?" Maria asked, getting Lloyd to turn and see a Leafeon lying on the railing next to him, soaking up as much sun as she could get. When she was relaxing in the sun, Blaze and Lloyd both joked by classifying the Leafeon as a liquid.

"You kidding me? This place is filled with pretty ladies," Lloyd smiled at a passing pair of teenage girls, who smiled back and winked.

Blaze was keeping himself occupied by puffing out smoke rings. "There's not enough interesting fire pokemon here," Blaze snorted,

Maria scoffed, "You too Blaze? Yeesh."

"Hey, hey, come on. Not like _that_."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd sniggered.

"Hey!" JT called, getting the three to turn. The young agent was approaching with Iris just a step behind. "Anyone show up yet?"

"Clearly not," Iris grunted.

JT ignored her comment and looked around. "HQ said they'd be unsuspicious right?"

"That's what they said," Lloyd replied, still looking across the crowd for another cute girl. "Man this place is... ah shit..."

"What?" JT asked, trying to see whatever made Lloyd upset. It became obvious when the crowd suddenly parted to allow her through; an eighteen-year-old girl garbed in a red jacket with blue sleeves, and long blue pants with a single white stripe up both sides. Her long blue hair reachs almost to her waist, curling into a white tip at the end.

It wasn't so much the girl marking the crowd split as it was the enormous pokemon stomping along beside her. The Garchomp picked at its teeth with an almost bored look on its face, same as his partner, as the two approach.

"Hello," The girl said, her voice incredibly monotone.

"I thought the LIOs were supposed to be inconspicuous," Iris whispered to JT, who simply shrugged.

"It's hot... at least tell me we've got AC in this place," she said, again in a monotone, while absently brushing at a strand of hair in her face.

"Of all the LIOs..." Lloyd facepalmed, "Come on Lea, let's go before we attract anymore attention."

"Okay..." Lea shrugged, putting her hands in her pockets. The pokemon watched as the three humans plus Iris returned to the base. They then shared a laugh as Maria hopped onto Blaze's head as an Eevee.

"Man, I love it when our trainers get together," Blaze chuckled.

"So do I," The Garchomp smiled, a little more lively. "Nice seeing you jokers again."

"Don't think you're not one of us Damien," Blaze snortted, "Whose idea was it to hide whipped cream bombs in the supply closet?"

Damien crossed his arms and glanced away.

"So-o-o... Kara's here," Maria quickly blurted. Blaze let out a sigh, she absolutely loved to make it awkward for the Garchomp.

Damien quickly tried to say something, but only choked out "Really?"

Blaze nodded, "Try not to act too awkward. Okay?"

The Garchomp's face turned crimson as he nodded, but inwardly thought, _'Great...'_

~!~

"Ack!" Yuna shrieked as she spilled milk on her lap for the fourth time. Of all times to screw up with psychic abilities, breakfast was the worst. Roxas's shirt was covered in bacon grease, and pieces of eggs. The rest of the family was struggling to keep from laughing as they screwed up their handling of their utensils over and over again.

"Ha, now, focus on just the utensil first! You guys are moving too fast!" Ray laughed as he gave out directions. The two were going at it for thirty minutes now, and they still haven't been able to eat a clean spoonful, or fork full. As for the mess, Ray caught everything with his psychic powers before they hit the ground or any fabric. However, he let food fall onto the siblings' bodies.

Roxas was completely new with human utensils, and the fact that he's using psychic abilities didn't help him either. He struggled to hold the fork down on a piece of ham, desperately trying to cut a piece off with a knife, but it was useless. The fork slipped, the knife wasn't angled properly, and he was left in a frustrated mess.

Yuna on the other hand, was doing pretty well… until she came upon the cereal. Whatever grip she had on that spoon of hers, it was pretty loose. It always dipped and spilled, and it always shook when she concentrated too hard. Neither of them could enjoy their breakfast.

"I give up," Roxas said as he sat back, letting his fork and knife clatter on the plate. Yuna at least tried to drink the milk from the bowl, but it ended up washing her head in milk. The two human form Latis sat with crimson on their faces from the laughter of the group. After everything settled down, Kara laughed,

"Don't take it too hard, you two actually better than Ray thought!" Ray couldn't help but turn away and laugh over his shoulder. Revenge was sweet. He let out a quick cough before he got the attention of both of them.

"Alright, I guess that's enough for today for breakfast! Here, I managed to catch all of the food you guys dropped in this plate back here. Take a good look at how much you guys dropped!" Ray said as he used his telepathy to carry a gigantic dinner plate with a gigantic mountain of food. Roxas and Yuna both groaned and put their hands to their faces in even more embarrassment.

"Are you serious?" Roxas muttered under his breath, taking a piece of bacon and chewing on it, not really enjoying the bitter taste of their failure.

"Aw come on, it wasn't _that_ bad…" Ray said before taking a good look at the plate before bursting out in laughter. Kara gave Ray a huff and a small nudge with her elbow. Yuna was a little sad while KRoxas was pretty ticked off. Their first attempt barely had any success.

"Alright you two, once you're done, I want you two to try to move your plates over to the sink with you minds. That should be a little easier since it doesn't involve something complex like stabbing a piece of an egg with a fork or balancing milk on a spoon." Immediately, the two got up, lifted their plates with their hands and dropped them into the sink. Roxas was glaring daggers towards the exit while Yuna was sighing and walking with her brother.

"Hey, hey, what's the matter?" Ray asked with a smirk.

"Uncle Ray, we absolutely sucked!" Yuna turned around and said with a frustrated face.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have to be so depressed about it," Ray said with a cocked eyebrow.

"Why? That was absolutely terrible! I don't even want to learn telepathy anymore!" Roxas retorted with a shout, but before anybody else could say or do anything, a piece of bacon slapped right into his face so quick that Pikachu missed it when he blinked. Kiba's stance crippled for a second as he let out a shriek from the meat that covered his face.

"Hey. There's gonna be none of that here. I expect a lot out of you, so you better be ready to meet those expectations! And besides, if you learn telepathy, maybe you can learn how to catch bacon with your mind instead of catching it with your face. Your hands would probably be too slow anyway," Ray said with a serious stare. Roxas let the bacon slide from his face, blinking at the sudden attack from his uncle. The bacon left his face and fell to the floor, but before he could do anything about it, it managed to hang in the air by itself. Even though some of the bacon grease fell from the sudden stop, the bacon was surely flying.

"Big brother, Uncle Ray is right. I mean, we shouldn't give up that easily right?" Yuna said as she concentrated to move the bacon back to the amounted plate. She let out an exhale of relaxation, putting a lot of effort in moving the bacon to the other side of the room.

"See? Your sister has the right idea," Ray smirked. Roxas gave Yuna a look that told her, 'You're not helping!' but then he let out a grunt.

"Yeah. She always does huh?" Yuna gave Roxas a grin,

"Come on big bro! It'll be fun!" Yuna's smile always seemed to brighten up the room, and Roxas couldn't help but give her a smile back, even though it was slightly crooked.

"Yeah, I'll do my best sis."

"Good! Now, head out into the garden, we'll continue with our next exercise!" Ray gave the two an even bigger smirk. He changed to his Lati form, and stuck out two claws towards the siblings' direction.

"And you two better come with the right attitudes! Next up is catch with a five pound weight!" Roxas and Yuna couldn't help but groan, their hopes for the next training session just plummeted.

~!~

"Peh, leave me to do the guard work," a Houndoom huffed. He was the youngest of the pack, and he was probably the most hot-blooded and the less sophisticated too. He was lying down at the back entrance, which was replaced since the last one was blown up. The people on the street gave him a quick glance and then turned away because of the menacing look Houndooms naturally carried. It's not that he cared in the first place, they _were _humans after all. It was probably because he was a shiny.

But then, something caught his nose and immediately, he sat up straight. The smell was unmistakable; it was the smell of a… one of those things.

"Well, well, well, I'm surprised to see another shiny fire type over in this island," A feminine and seductive voice spoke loud enough so that it was projected over the voice of the humans. The Houndoom shot up and twisted his head to the right to see the thing that he smelled. A Ninetails was swaying her tails and slowly walking over and circling the hell hound. The strange thing was that this Ninetails had an eerie silver color instead of its golden original color. Not only did its fur seem a different color, but the cobalt blue eyes seemed out of the norm also.

"Well, you're not the only one," the Houndoom nervously chuckled. The Ninetails gave off a slow giggle, brushing a white tipped tail across the muzzle of the Houndoom.

"Cute. What is a dog like you doing in the streets like this?"

"W-Well, I would like to ask you the same question," he replied, trying to resist her and to do his job. His back was buckling from her touch; it was as if each stroke of her tails had a different effect on his fur. It wasn't working, and then he thought of Scar and then straightened up and cleared his throat to sit confidently. The Ninetails stopped her caress assault and came close to the Houndoom so that her nose was an inch away from the Houndoom's.

"Hm? Well, you sure do fit your stereotype. I see that you're guarding a door, where does it lead to bad boy?"

"To my master's place, he wanted me to guard the back because of the recent stuff that's been going on. He's afraid of the gangsters running from the FUZE guys." the Houndoom tried to avoid her eyes, but failed a couple times. The Ninetail's eyes seemed to be half-lidded in a flirtatious manner, which didn't help at ALL. The Houndoom huffed, he gave the excuse that he was told to say, and he did it slowly and calmly. The sole thing that kept him from tackling the bitch and having his way with her was the picture of Scar and his intimidating glare with the words: "Compromise us and your head will be mine."

"Is that so? What a brave hound. Well, that's too bad because I was looking for a dog like you that wants to go have some fun. Your loyalty is admirable, I like you." Before the Houndoom say any words of thanks, the Ninetails closed her eyes, pushed her nose onto his, and put her mouth on his. The Houndoom's left eye twitched, and the fox decided to take it a step further by sliding her tongue into his mouth and giving his tongue a couple of fiery licks before retreating.

"I _have _to know your name, maybe we can meet again," the Ninetails said while sitting a considerable distance from him, much to his dismay.

"It's Dim," the Houndoom said quickly, a gigantic blush spreading across his dark face. The Ninetails giggled,

"Such a cute name for a Houndoom. I like your kind of dog, but I guess I'll have to find another one. I'm pretty sure we'll meet again though, catch you later big boy." The Ninetails started to slowly walk away with her tails swaying as if to taunt him for declining her offer. That made him gulp and blurt out,

"Wait!" The Ninetails did a slow turn around, giving the Houndoom one, half-closed eye.

"Hm?"

"Wh-what's your name?" Dim's voice quivered. The Ninetails stopped swaying her tails and paused, looking away for a second, but then smiled and swayed her tails again.

"It's Rao big boy. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find me. After all, I _am_ the only one of my kind," The Ninetails giggled before heading off away from Dim. Dim gulped and did his best to look away, but he looked as much as he wanted to since she wasn't looking. That was way too hot for him to handle.

"Dim, come on in buddy. We're done inside," a Hell Hound popped his head out of the door, making the Houndoom jump and snarl at the human.

"Arceus, Tim, don't do that!" Dim barked. Tim raised his hands and backed off.

"Sheesh, take a chill pill." The Houndoom sighed, he was paired with the youngest of the gang, Tim. He was the most energetic of them all, which Dim liked. He would rather have someone fun than someone who's too serious. However, this was DEFINATELY one of the times when he wished that he didn't have a partner. He trotted inside to meet a finished work space and his pack. Dim sat in front of the group with a blush on his face, and his front legs and paws seemed to intentionally close to his lower body.

"Dim, you smell of a female. Did you encounter anyone outside?" Iris asked. Scar glared at the youngest of the group. The whole pack knew that he was a sucker for females, and that usually got the pack into trouble. Dim gulped,

"Yes, but I didn't say anything about us, I gave her the same exact thing you told me to say."

"Good. Well, take a small rest Dim. Our next job will be given to us shortly," Iris said while turning to JT.

"S-Scar?" Dim said with a wavering voice.

"When you speak to me, speak confidently pup. What is it?" Scar asked with his menacing look.

"Next time… send a human," Dim said while averting his gaze. Scar paused, and then took note of his gigantic blush.

"As you wish." Scar turned away, and then Dim let out a large sigh and collapsed to lie down.

"Man, this sucks. Why am I the only one who has lady problems?" Dim let out a puff of smoke with his blush still in its deepest color.

~!~

"Alright, before we end up breaking someone's wing from catch, we're gonna do something less serious." Ray smiled as they sat around the dark wooden table in the shop. Roxas and Yuna both huffed, catch didn't go as well either. Yuna almost ended up breaking Roxas's wing from an accidental throw. The three blinked as he reached from under the table to bring out a metal rectangular prism. The top undid itself, and the sounds of wooden blocks hitting each other followed. Yuna and Roxas stared at the jumble of wooden blocks.

"Uncle Ray, are we playing-"

"Jenga?" Roxas finished Yuna's sentence. Ray smiled, putting the blocks on top of each other in trios in an alternating arrangement **(AN: Okay, come on, who hasn't played Jenga before?)**.

"You two know how to play right?" Ray asked; making sure that the wooden Jenga tower was perfectly rectangular.

"You try to remove a block without crumbling the entire tower right?" Yuna asked. Clearly, they haven't played this game in a while.

"You guys got the gist of it, but let me lay down some ground rules. No physical contact with the Jenga tower, and if you start to move one piece, you have to stick with it. Another rule is that you can't pick up the tower and take off a piece at the bottom, that's cheating. Now, I'll start it off. Whoever loses has to do a punishment," Ray snickered. Roxas and Yuna both fumed,

"That's not fair! We know who's going to win!" Roxas exclaimed. Ray then glanced at the two siblings.

"Between you two?" Yuna and Roxas slowly turned towards each other, giving each other a blink before they narrowed their eyes and growled as they closed the distance between their faces. Today, the two were a little ticked off at each other, and this was one of the perfect ways for revenge. Ray inwardly patted himself on the back; this is where sibling rivalries come in handy.

"I'll start it off," Ray said, unbeknownst to the two. He took out a middle piece near the bottom with his mind, setting it on the top. The two siblings break from their glaring contest and snap back to the Jenga game. It was Roxas's turn, and he licked his lips before starting. He eyed the right piece near the top of the tower, easily taking it out with his mind. He smiled, he was getting better at this! He set it at the top, right next to Ray's piece. He gave Yuna a smug grin, which said 'Beat that!'

Yuna returned the grin, and took out the left side on the same section that Roxas just pulled the block out of. She set it next to his piece, completing their first section. Yuna stuck her tongue out at him, and Roxas just chuckled at his sister.

"Jeez you two, already we have the top part of the tower getting hold up by a single block in the middle!" Ray laughed. He reached below the one block section, and took out the middle block. Already, the tower was about to crumble. Ray set the block at the top, starting a new section. Roxas exhaled, careful not to breath too hard on the tower, and started his procedure of taking out the middle piece of the section before Ray's. Luckily, the block slid right out with ease, but Roxas's block shook as it was placed next to Ray's block, and almost toppled the tower over.

He let out a sigh of relief as he finished. Yuna gulped, and started her removal of a block on the right of a section near the bottom. To her dismay, the block wouldn't budge without tugging on it with her mind. She gulped again, and then realized that the block wouldn't come out! She slowly tried to pull out the block. Nope. She tried to pull it out with medium force. Nope.

Finally, Yuna decided to attempt a handkerchief trick by pulling the block out really quickly. The block came out, but the tower didn't stay upright. In fact, the tower crumbled, and Yuna watched in horror at the blocks clattering to the wooden table in a mess. Yuna still held the block with her mind, but she ended up letting go of it, letting the hollow sound of wood on wood echo through the shop. Roxas and Ray yelled out in excitement, the previous tension was too much for them to keep in their bodies.

Ray snickered at his punishment idea. No matter what kind of puppy face Yuna met, Ray kept his evil motives alive by reaching inside a refrigerator inside the shop and pulling out a trio of Figy berries.

"Lucy, you have to eat three of these at once." Roxas covered his mouth to try not to laugh, but his scoffs penetrated his hand and rang in Yuna's ears.

"But Uncle Ray, they're too hot!"

"It's a punishment," Ray said with a ring in his voice. Yuna whimpered before picking the Figy. She clenched her eyes closed as she dropped them in her mouth and started to chew it. Two seconds in, she was doing fine. The berry actually tasted really good. However, in a matter of five seconds, Yuna was already at the sink. Her brother was laughing his head off, watching his sister rinse her mouth with the coldest water she could gather from the tap. Her face was literally submerged in the water, and her screams went past her gurgles from the water.

After a matter of five minutes, the trio went back to the table. Roxas had to keep his laughter under control, but found it hard because of how red her face got from the Figies. He never though her face could get more red than her Lati color! Yuna glared at him while hissing in air to cool off her tongue and throat, but she was met with laughter again from the funny hissing. Ray chuckled as the Jenga tower was set back up.

"Alright, round 2!" This round lasted a little longer than the other since the two got the hang of it already. By the time that it got a little more harder. Yuna just let out a sigh of relief as she set another block on the top. This required a lot more concentration, but this was too fun to care. Roxas was also glaring at the tower as he put a piece on the top. Ray was still relaxed, having fun at the game.

"Roxas, your turn again," Ray said as he yawned. The Latios gulped, five new layers of blocks were on the top, and the bottom blocks were held up with only one block each, criss-crossing as they held the tower.

"Alright, here it goes…" The younger Lati took his time, and he gritted his teeth when he found a block that wouldn't budge. Yuna was grinning, but Roxas didn't give up. He ended up wiggling out the block halfway. Yuna was panicking a little; she didn't want to eat another set of berries. So, what she did was slowly chant:

"Jenga… Jenga… Jenga…" Yuna whispered as Roxas whimpered. Yuna kept on chanting, but he was already more than halfway.

"Haha! Looks like I have this one in the bag," The Lati bit his tongue. He could taste that awesome victory that was coming right around the corne-

"Hey guys! Guess what? Pikachu and I made it into LANCE!" Bianca, Kara, Sparks and Amy both burst into the house, creating a racket. This made Roxas turn right around, and knock the entire tower over in a quick second.

"**NOOOOOOO!"** Roxas immediately put his paws to his face and let out a giant scream and a groan. Yuna let out a cheer and did a little dance around the room. The four that just came in just watched in silence, taking one step back just in case they had to leave.

"Eat it!" Yuna shoved a small twig with a triplet of Figy berries.

"Um… are we missing something here?" Kara asked, cringing at the sight of the spicy berries. Ray gave everybody an innocent smile.

"Just a friendly game of Jenga."

"IT BURNS!" Roxas yelled out as he put the palms of his paws upwards towards the ceiling as he screamed in agony. Yuna was cackling with evil laughter, and Ray was already on putting back the Jenga tower.

"Who are you people? And what have you done to my friends?" Bianca asked the Latis. Pikachu was already out of the shop with Amy, and Kara was slumped over Lorenzo's comfy rocking chair while she sighed and turned the TV on, trying to block out the Latis and Bianca. Let's see… Food channel? Nah, just ate. Tourist travel channel? Nah, I already know this place inside and out. Pokemon battling? Too many amateurs. Breaking news? Nah, I alr- wait, breaking news?

"_Yes! This is breaking news! It seems that one of the FUZE members has been hanged on the clocktower in central Altomare! The FUZE has not yet been identified, but from this angle, we can see… Oh my Arceus…"_ Kara's eyes widened at the sight she saw next. The FUZE member was hung when the hour hand was at twelve, and the clock has seemed to have stopped by then. The camera zoomed in closer and closer, and the uncloaked FUZE member's features were soon very visible.

"Ray, Ray!" Kara called back to her partner without letting her eyes leave the TV screen. Ray was over quickly, and his reaction to what he was seeing was no different than Kara's. The Lati siblings and Bianca looked on in both horror and surprise at the look at the FUZE member.

~!~

"Hey, Hey! Everybody! Get a load of this!" JT called out as a mini TV was on a stand of equipment. The pokemon and the humans gathered around and stared at what they were seeing. The FUZE member had his robe torn, and his hood was no where to be seen. Around his neck was a thick cord of rope, and his body hung limp from the sheer force of falling and snapping his neck. What made all of them cringe wasn't the sight of him being hung, it was the sight of the FUZE member himself. What they saw wasn't human, but it was a pokemon.

Or so they thought.

The figure had a tan coloration; its eyes resembled a Sandslash's while it had the protruding appendages of a Gabite. It had the hair of the Sandslash on its back, and the claws of a Sandslash while retaining the same figure of a Gabite. Its tan tail was limp along with its body, and the entire body was covered in cuts and bruises and marks of a fight. Pinned to his robe was a rag of white with a red question mark that was messily splattered on.

"What the fuck is that?" DJ exclaimed. Everybody else's expression asked the same thing.

"I've never seen anything like it, I have no clue," Lloyd almost whispered. Lea had her emotionless look still on, but by the way she was leaning forward, it seemed like she was showing a little interest. Maria and Blaze gave each other one long, hard stare before whispering to each other.

"Do you think…?" Blaze started.

"Yeah. No doubt about it… I'm surprised that it still exists…" Maria frowned. The two looked back at the TV with grim faces.

~!~

"_You have failed me."_

"M-my lady!"

"_Darn, what a pity. Now we have no choice but to go with plan B."_

"_I prefer plan B anyway, it's more chaotic."_

"_Silence!... Now, explain this you _wretch!_"_

"T-there were thugs d-down below in the s-sewers… We thought that they left, or that we c-captured them!"

"_Again, your cockiness got the best of you. No matter. We have a simple solution for you."_

"N-No! P-Please!"

"_You asked for it hun~"_

"_It is the right punishment."_

"_Skin… him…"_

"NO! No, I can atone for what I have done! I will find these thugs and-"

"_Your second chance was given. You have abused it, and now you are forcing us to take drastic violent measures. This won't go without attention."_

"_You can make up your mistakes by becoming a test subject once again… away with him."_

"No! No! Stop! Number 01, please! Anybody, just stop it! NO!"

"_I… love… his… screams…"_

"_Peh. Whatever. You creep me out."_

"_May I ask what we're going to do next?"_

"… _Why, I guess we don't really have a choice but to take it the hard way. Either way, we WILL prevail. Our plan has been set into motion, and no one can stop FUZE now."_

"_Great," _In the darkness of the room, one of the hooded figures stepped forward. The only thing that was shown underneath that hood was a sadistic grin, shining in the pitch black room.

"Just what I've been waiting for!"

~!~

Well, that's it for now! Sorry for the late, late, late, late, late update… I feel really bad… Gah, whatever. It's not like a lot of people are reading this anyway, but thanks to all of the reviewers who are! If you want this story to continue, please review! Because it's pretty discouraging to a writer to not have reviews on his stories, to be honest. Hey, but thanks to everybody who reviewed! At least three reviews, and then I'll continue! (I'm just making an excuse so I can have time to write… maybe.)

Somebody please tell me that they see the KH reference here, with the name that I gave Josh. I thought that Josh and Lucy sounded too normal, so I decided to give them more pizzazz.


	9. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hey guys! CJFANG here, just wanted to let you know I'm not dead! Well, that's the good news anyway...

Here's the bad news. I'm gonna be taking a small break from Rays of Light and I'm going to be focusing on my other story, The Neon War so I can finish an arc and get it done and over with. Two stories at once are a little too much for me right now. Not only that, but my computer time is limited, so my thoughts dissapear whenever I get privacy with a word document or something.

Please respect my decision. No, this doesnt mean I'm gonna leave or abandon this story, I'll still be writing guys, don't worry! Just don't expect me to update this story for a while.

I'll see you guys around, CJ


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